Into the Breach
by pjmb13
Summary: Spartan Michael-113 is an augmented super soldier. He has been given enhanced body strength and the latest equipment that the UNSC can provide, but under all the changes and equipment he is still human and he is trying to understand who and what he is as he faces off against an alien enemy. In war you not only face the enemy on the battlefield, but you also face yourself.
1. Chapter 1

This is my 5th fanfiction story. This is a HALO only story but uses my OC from my HALO/Buffy crossover stories. You could consider it a "prequel" to give more background on my Michael-113 Spartan character. I appreciate all constructive comments and editorials. I have discovered from writing that to become a decent writer you must have no self-esteem :-)

I just want to say thanks to the creators, writers and designers of the HALO (HALO 4 Rocks!) franchise. They have provided me with hours of enjoyment and entertainment. All characters are the intellectual property of their respective creators and publishers; this story may not be sold or distributed on a profit-making basis.

Thanks to all that read this story...

Spartan Michael-113 is an augmented super soldier. He has been given enhanced body strength and the latest equipment that the UNSC can provide, but under all the changes and equipment he is still human and he is trying to understand who and what he is as he faces off against an alien enemy. In war you not only face the enemy on the battlefield but you also face yourself.**  
**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

_The Spartan-II program was a highly classified Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) project that sought to create the ultimate special operations soldier. These soldiers were to be deployed to deal with the growing insurrectionist movement among the human colony worlds. Under the direction of Dr. Catherine Halsey, she used controversial techniques to identify and "recruit" those candidates that met the genetic requirements for the program. Starting in 2517, children at the age of six were kidnapped from their families and replaced by flash clones that would die within a short time period of an untreatable genetic illness. This would provide the cover up for the missing children. The "recruited" children underwent intensive physical and military training and indoctrination at a secret ONI facility on the planet Reach in the Epsilon Eridani system._

_In 2525 when the children reached the age of 14, they all underwent the second phase of the program which was the biological augmentation procedure that would enhance their bodies to be able to wear the MJOLNIR exoskeleton battle suit that was being developed in conjunction. The medical procedures used for the augmentation process resulted in 30 dead candidates and 12 candidates being crippled to the extent that they were "washed-out" of the program and reassigned to other tasks within ONI and the UNSC._

_By the year 2535, the Human-Covenant war was into its 10th year… all the outer colony worlds had either been destroyed or abandoned due to the unending genocidal attacks by Covenant forces. Time after time human forces stood their ground inflicting massive losses to buy time for civilians to be evacuated, but eventually Covenant technology and numbers would swamp the defenses resulting in another defeat and retreat. The war was going badly for the human race. There had been a few scattered victories, but it had been an endless series of planetary sieges and evacuations as the Covenant used its technical advantages to defeat the UNSC in space and lay waste and "glass" one human colony after another by orbital plasma bombardment. With the majority of successes against the Covenant coming from when the Spartan-II's were deployed, the real reason for the development of the Spartan program was quickly forgotten or "revised"._

_By 2536 the Covenant had begun its invasion of the inner colony worlds. Those surviving Spartan-II's along with the next generation Spartan-III's continued to stand and defend against the unrelenting Covenant advance…  
_

* * *

**_Reach – Epsilon Eridani system – May 23, 2536 – 0935 Local Time_**

Doctor Sara Reeves was at her desk caught up in her work as she tended to be every day. She had been working for ONI for five years and involved specifically with the Spartan program for the last two years. Her main function was to review the mental and psychological health of Spartans especially the Spartan-II's. Doctor Reeves spent her work days reviewing records, listening to audio recordings and watching videos of the Spartans to try and analyze their mental health. There would be those occasions when she would be able to follow up in person and do a face to face interview with one of the Spartans, but due to the war and the demands on the Spartans those interviews were on very rare occasions or when a problem had been identified and required immediate follow up. Even though Doctor Reeves had access to the Spartans and records, there was still much about the Spartan-II program that was out of her security classification level. When she had first started this job she had protested this lack of information as she felt it was important to know about the Spartans' backgrounds and understand the type of training they had under gone in order to provide a better psychological analysis. She had been rudely brought into the world of "Black-Ops" when a high ranking ONI officer informed her that if they told her the whole story behind the Spartan-II program then they would have to kill her.

With that bit of sobering information, Doctor Reeves worked within the narrow confines and restrictions of what information she could access and questions she could ask from the Spartans. The doctor was smart enough to use the information she had gathered to deduce some of the Spartan-II program details and what she had found had shocked her at first, but she kept those thoughts to herself and not record them. She had first been torn by the moral implications that swirled around the program, but with the Covenant exterminating human world after world and that it appeared that the Spartans were providing the most effective defense against the enemy, such moral quandaries seemed to not have as much importance and the doctor focused on making sure that the Spartans were able to continue fighting.

The doctor had been reviewing the records for the Spartan-II's and she was getting worried with a disturbing trend that was starting to appear among all of them. There seemed to be a marked rise in what could be considered anti-social behavior and a trend towards psychotic behavior. All the Spartans were reporting problems sleeping and dream states. The Spartans were all at different stages, but there was a definite pattern and curve to their behavior. The more extreme cases were not even removing their battle armor now and leaving their helmets on at all times. This was a sign that those Spartans were isolating themselves more from human contact and that could only result in a further spiral downward in their mental health and eventually affect their combat performance. Doctor Reeves had already written up a memo outlining the problem and her concerns and sent it up. The only reply she had received was a terse reply that acknowledged receipt of the memo and that it was being taken under "advisement".

Doctor Reeves sighed in her mind as she realized that the military bureaucratic mindset was one mind that she would never be able to understand or analyze and she went back to reviewing her files and records. She opened up the file for a Spartan named Michael-113 and she reviewed the latest medical information that had been gathered. This particular Spartan seemed to be tasked on a lot of solo missions though what type of missions and the activity involved was unavailable to the doctor. As she reviewed the latest data, she started to frown. This Spartan was showing increased incidents of troubled sleeping and nightmares. Though this Spartan was not yet in the high risk group the doctor updated the medical records to make sure that this Spartan was kept under further observation when not deployed… The doctor recommended that Michael-113 have the number of solo missions reduced and that he be integrated into a team/unit structured environment to help lessen the risks and impacts… At another facility on Reach the Spartan at the center of Doctor Reeves's concern was undergoing a mission debriefing.

* * *

The ONI officer entered the briefing room and saw the Spartan stand to immediate attention. The officer noted that the Spartan was out of his battle armor and wearing a standard UNSC Navy uniform without any insignia or tags except for one shoulder tag that was the emblem for the Spartans. The officer was an older man and had been in numerous campaigns and on missions throughout his career and he still couldn't believe how young the Spartan-II's all looked. The only hint that you could see from the Spartans to give you a glimpse of who and what they were was in their eyes and how they looked at you. In past wars it had been referred to as the 1000 yard stare, but this was different from what the officer had seen in his eyes and other veterans. There was the look of seeing war and death, but there was something else in there… A determination and something else that the officer couldn't quite put his finger on…

The officer had to remember that this young looking Spartan had nearly twenty years of military experience and was part of an elite group of soldiers that would take on the most difficult of missions and were right now the UNSC's best hope for combatting the Covenant.

"At ease Michael-113" the officer said watching as the Spartan sat back down. Even sitting down at ease the Spartan looked ready to deal with any situation. His eyes were focused and analyzing everything around him… noting every detail.

"I was going over your mission logs… Everything seemed to go as planned and you were able to retrieve the data module and take out that insurrectionist cell on Paris IV… Do you have anything to add to your mission report?" the ONI officer asked.

"Sir… I have nothing to add about the mission… Everything went according to plan." Michael-113 replied.

The officer heard the Spartan speak and from the tone of the response he felt that the Spartan was holding back.

"You have a question?"

"More of a concern… Permission to speak freely Sir?" asked the Spartan.

"Go ahead"

"With the current state of the war against the Covenant, I am wondering why a high percentage of my missions are still tasked to deal with human insurrectionists? The Covenant is the larger threat right now…" replied Michael-113.

The officer made direct eye contact with the Spartan, "Even with the Covenant threat… The insurrectionists are still causing problems with the UNSC… That we have to divert precious resources like yourself to dealing with this threat speaks volumes to the impact the "Innies" are having on our war effort… We cannot afford to have these traitors to humanity undercut us in this desperate struggle against the Covenant… You have a stellar record in operations against the Innies. That is why you are being tasked with these missions…"

"Understood sir… But I would like to contribute more against the Covenant…" Michael-113 responded.

The officer smiled at the Spartan, "Well you are in luck… As you are probably aware the Covenant has started moving against our inner colonies… Two months ago they started by attacking and invading New Constantinople… Vice Admiral Whitcomb has been organizing and conducting the defense of the system and planet… So far he has been fighting the Covenant to a draw and the Covenant has only managed to gain a small foothold planet side… We are currently organizing a relief task force to reinforce the Vice Admiral… You will be assigned to the relief force to provide Spartan support to the ground forces there…"

The officer saw the Spartan start to form a smile at this news, he continued speaking, "We have a secondary mission for you while you are planet side… We have intercepted communications from several insurrectionist cells that are located on New Constantinople… You are to track down these cells and eliminate them with "extreme prejudice". Do you understand?"

The officer saw the half formed smile on the Spartan disappear at hearing the secondary mission objectives.

"Yes sir… I understand" the Spartan replied with no hesitation.

"Your mission briefing package is available to download and has also been loaded into your battle armor… The relief task force is still assembling and it is planned that they will be heading out in 3 days' time…" the officer continued speaking.

"What kind of support will I have for achieving my secondary mission objectives?" asked Michael-113

"None… The secondary mission is on a "Need to Know" basis… The Vice Admiral already has Spartan-III Alpha Company in-system. You will provide support to those forces, but they will not assist you with your secondary mission objectives… Any other questions?" asked the officer.

"No sir…" replied the Spartan in a matter of fact tone.

"Then you are dismissed…" the officer said watching as the Spartan stood up to attention and saluted.

As the Spartan started to leave, the officer spoke again bringing the Spartan back to attention, "Michael-113… One more thing."

"Sir?" replied the Spartan.

"Good hunting Spartan…" replied the officer.

* * *

The Spartan named Michael-113 was walking back to his room on the base. From the outside you couldn't tell what the young man was thinking, but inside he was a torrent of emotions.

"_Damn it! Another "wet-op"… I'm so damned tired of going after Innies … I should be fighting the Covenant… That's where I'm needed…_" thought the Spartan.

The Spartan considered going to Doctor Halsey to try and get the mission orders changed, but he knew that she wouldn't override or question ONI mission orders.

Michael realized that he would follow and carry out all his orders as he had been instructed to. He was too good of a soldier to disobey his orders. He realized that the Innies could and were causing some major headaches for the UNSC… Didn't the Innies realize that they were just as much a target for the Covenant as everyone else was?

Michael sighed, "_I guess we're the only race in this universe that cannot only fight an alien race bent on our destruction, but also fight amongst ourselves at the same time…_"

Michael reached his room and upon entering he sat down in front of his terminal and brought up his mission package along with all information regarding New Constantinople and the latest intel regarding the battle and disposition of forces both UNSC and Covenant. He spent several hours reviewing all the data and memorizing all the details and info he thought he would need to know to survive and complete his missions.

* * *

_The dream came again as it always had… There was fire everywhere. He could hear people screaming for help and crying… There were monsters swarming everywhere… It wasn't Covenant… It was actual monsters that were feeding on people…. He couldn't move all he could do was stand and watch helplessly… The voices taunted him… "Murderer"… they called him. He wanted to help but there was nothing he could do… He screamed back, "I'm just following orders…" The voices laughed at him and his feeble excuses… "Who are you? What are you?" the voices asked him… _

Michael woke up with a start and in a cold sweat. Michael ran a hand down his face and tried to relax. It seemed that after every mission the nightmares would come and they were getting worse. He knew that he was being monitored and he knew he wasn't the only Spartan that was having nightmares. It was how each of them dealt with them was what differed between them. Michael knew that John was on the extreme side… It was now very rare that the Master Chief took off his battle armor let alone his helmet. The others buried their feelings and focused on becoming better weapons by training harder. Michael didn't want to cut himself off like the others…

"_I'm still human… No matter what happens… I'm still human…_" Michael kept thinking to himself as he relaxed his breathing and tried to clear his mind of the disturbing images.

Michael finally relaxed enough to lie back down and close his eyes and drifted off to a slightly less disturbed, but still a restless sleep as the thoughts "_Who are you? What are you?_" still drifted through his mind…

* * *

The next morning Michael was in the training facility. He was using one of the weight benches to work out on. He was pushing himself hard this morning as he was lifting very height weights in the 1000lb range.

"_Focus on the weight… Just focus on lifting… Nothing else matters…_" Michael thought as he concentrated on what he was doing trying to put all other thoughts from his mind.

When Michael put the weights down, he heard a female voice from behind him speak, "You're Michael-113 aren't you?"

Michael sat up on the weight bench and turned to face the voice. He found himself looking a woman who appeared to be in her late-30's to early-40's. She was about 5' 4" in height and had a slight build. The female had short brown hair. She had an air of knowledge and intelligence around her.

"_She must be a doctor… She has that look._" Michael thought as he appraised the female in front of him. Michael had been around doctors most of his early years that he could pick them out of a crowd.

"Yes… I'm Michael… What can I do for you?" Michael asked.

"I'm Doctor Sara Reeves… I was wondering if you have a few minutes to talk." the female said.

Michael considered the request for a moment. He should be going over his mission package again and putting together his equipment to take with him. He had spent the majority of his life around doctors of one sort or another and he was tired of answering questions and being poked and prodded, but this morning for some reason he didn't mind talking to this doctor.

"Okay Doc… I can spare a few minutes, but then I have to go finish prepping for my mission. I'm shipping out soon." replied Michael.

The female doctor actually smiled at Michael's response. Most times when she requested face to face interviews with Spartans they were usually resistant and didn't want to talk unless they were ordered to.

"Excellent… If you'll follow me I have an office setup where we can talk in private." replied Doctor Reeves.

Michael followed the doctor trying to keep a distance between them to not make her feel uncomfortable as most people got uncomfortable by the towering size of the Spartans. When they entered the doctor's office, Michael noticed just a desk with chairs on each side and a computer terminal on the desk. Michael sat down on the chair that the doctor offered and he watched the doctor move to the other side of the desk and took her seat.

"So Michael… How are you feeling these days?" the doctor started the conversation off.

"I'm fine… No worries…" Michael replied.

"How are you sleeping at night?" the doctor asked.

Michael knew he had to be careful answering this question as he knew that they had been noting his sleep disturbances…

"I've been having some troubles sleeping, but you know how it is… When you are on an operation and in the field you don't get enough or proper sleep or in some cases you may not get any sleep until you are back on the ship or back at base… There's just an adjustment and it takes some time…" Michael replied.

"Uh-huh… Is there anything particular in these dreams that bother you?" asked the doctor following up as she made notes.

"No… I just have these dreams… They don't mean anything…" Michael said trying to keep the hesitation out of voice.

Doctor Reeves picked up on the hesitation in Michael's voice, "What do you dream about Michael? Are the dreams always the same?"

"It's nothing… They're just dreams… They mean nothing…"

The doctor sighed, "Michael… I'm not the enemy here… I'm here to help you and the other Spartans… I'm here to listen… not judge you…"

Michael decided to open up a bit to the doctor. He described some of his dreams. He described the monsters and fire and the people screaming and crying for help, but he decided to leave out some of the other more personal details. Michael watched as the doctor took notes.

"_I don't need to be held back for further "evaluation"… not at this time._" Michael thought.

"Is that everything? Are you sure there is nothing else you want to tell me?" Doctor Reeves said. She was a trained psychologist and she felt that Michael-113 was holding back from her. She looked into this Spartan's eyes. He met her stare and did not turn away. She could feel the strength in his return stare… She could also see pain there…

"I'm fine doc… I'm mission ready… Is that it?" Michael said breaking the doctor's concentration.

The doctor sighed again knowing that she wasn't going to get anything more from Michael-113, "Yes that's all… for now."

* * *

As Michael left the doctor, he again displayed no outward emotions, but inside he was still a raging sea of emotions.

"_Maybe I should have told the doctor what I have been feeling… But I have spent most of my life being studied, analyzed and augmented… I'm tired of doctors and everything to do with them… I just want to do my job… my duty…_"

Michael went back to his workout and focused on preparing for the mission…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**_In orbit around Reach – Epsilon Eridani system – May 26, 2536 – 1352 Local Time_**

Michael had suited up into his battle armor and loaded up his equipment and headed to the launch pad to catch a Pelican dropship to shuttle up to the relief force gathered in orbit around Reach. As the Pelican left Reach's atmosphere, Michael took a moment to look out one of the view windows to look back at Reach. It was one of his traditions whenever he left on a mission. Reach was the closest place that he knew to as a home. What memories that he had before he had been "selected" for the Spartan program had faded. He would still get flashes of people and places in his dreams, but that was all. Being a Spartan was all he had ever known and Reach was home.

Michael watched as the planet got smaller as they travelled further into orbit to rendezvous with the fleet. Michael finally refocused and moved back to his seat in the Pelican. Michael was in his battle armor and had his helmet on. Normally the ride would be squished, but Michael was the only passenger as there was mostly equipment being sent up on this run. As Michael sat he opened a video window on his helmet display and brought up the mission package info again. He wanted to cover off his secondary mission objectives.

The secondary mission was to eliminate all insurrectionist cells on New Constantinople. ONI had intercepted a number of communications packages and had identified several people and their locations on the planet. Michael was to locate those people and "interrogate" them to obtain the names of the others within their cells and then follow up and remove the insurrectionist threat.

As Michael reviewed the mission objectives and saw the word "interrogate" he automatically reached for his combat knife in its scabbard on his left shoulder and pulled it out and looked at it to check the blade's sharpness and for any nicks. This was the one part of the job fighting the "Innies" that Michael hated. He would never voice his feelings about it as he realized that this was unfortunately a part of the job and he was very good at field interrogations and obtaining information from Innies. Michael figured this was probably the main reason that he was tasked with insurrectionist missions. He was able to obtain results.

Michael wasn't worried about getting what equipment and resources he would need to complete his secondary missions. He had ONI security clearance to obtain whatever he needed. His only concern was not letting the secondary missions interfere with his primary mission of fighting the Covenant. He was pretty sure from studying Vice-Admiral Whitcomb's bio that the Vice-Admiral would not be too impressed with an ONI operation taking resources away from the defense of the system. Michael knew that he would have to tread lightly and not step on too many toes.

Michael looked towards the front of the Pelican and could see out the cockpit window as the dropship got closer to the fleet and moved to dock with the _UNSC Presidio_ a Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser. The _UNSC Presidio_ was the designated flagship for the 29-ship relief task force going to reinforce the forces already engaged in defending the New Constantinople system. According to the battle operation orders that Michael reviewed, the relief force would also be carrying the 119th Marine Division, the 232nd Heavy Armored Brigade and two ODST units. These units would be offloaded to reinforce the already deployed ground units. The plan was to counter-attack to destroy the existing Covenant beachhead on the planet before it could be reinforced any further.

If UNSC forces failed to destroy or hold back the Covenant then the plan was to have a fighting withdrawal to buy as much time as possible to evacuate the civilian population. The problem with that plan was that New Constantinople was one of the older inner colonies and had a population of nearly 300 million spread across the planet. Anyone that was even remotely familiar with logistics would realize that trying to evacuate 300 million people wasn't even in the realm of possibility… That hadn't deterred Vice Admiral Whitcomb, he had already started the evacuation of civilians from the planet. Michael admired the Admiral's tenacity and strategic brilliance that he had so far battled the Covenant to a draw in space and had contained the Covenant beachhead. The Covenant held such a technological advantage in space that it cost 3 UNSC ships to kill one Covenant ship. Only on the ground did the UNSC come close to par with the Covenant and when Spartans were thrown into the mix they were able to raise the odds into the UNSC's favor.

Michael felt the bump as the Pelican landed in the _Presidio_'s landing bay. He remained seated until the loading ramp of the Pelican lowered. Michael was met by the sights and sounds of the landing bay and crew busily moving around unloading other transports and readying equipment for the transit to New Constantinople.

As Michael exited from the Pelican he was met by stares from nearby crew as they saw the Spartan move on to the deck of the ship. The landing bay crew stopped and watched as the Spartan moved through the landing bay. Michael was used to the stares and ignored them. Spartans tended to stand out in any crowd and by this point of the war the Spartans had already built up an aura of legend from the battles they had been involved with against the Covenant. The feeling was that having a Spartan with you on a mission against the Covenant increased your odds of coming back alive. Michael saw the looks of awe and relief on the crews' faces as he walked through the landing bay. He was glad that he had his helmet on and they couldn't see his face. Michael had only been involved in a handful of missions against the Covenant so far and most of those missions had been recon or small unit actions supporting other UNSC forces. Michael felt the pressure to prove himself against the Covenant.

"_This is my chance… I'm finally going to be where I need to be…_" Michael thought as he walked through the landing bay.

Michael exited the landing bay and took an elevator to the ship's bridge deck. He needed to report in to the Captain before anything else…

* * *

Michael exited the ship's elevator on to the bridge deck. As Michael made his way through to the main viewing area, he was again the attention of looks and stares from the bridge crew. Michael's enhanced hearing and suit's audio system could pick up the whispers of the bridge crew clearly…

Michael saw the Captain standing looking out the main view window. The Captain had an electronic tablet in his hand and was occasionally looking at the tablet. Michael came up behind the Captain and snapped to attention with a crisp salute.

"Captain Kwong… Sierra-113 reporting aboard as ordered…"

Captain Henry Kwong turned around and took a moment to look over the Spartan standing at full attention in his battle armor. The Captain had been on operations before with Spartans and had always been impressed with their sense of duty.

Captain Kwong returned the salute, "Welcome aboard Sierra-113… Stand at ease."

Michael stood at ease and saw the Captain smile and hold out his hand to the Spartan. Michael reached out and shook the Captain's hand.

"I'm glad we have a Spartan with us on this run… Things could get ugly when we reach New Constantinople…" Captain Kwong said.

"I doubt that the Covenant will be pleased to see us… We can only hope we'll ruin their day when we get there…" Michael replied.

The Captain chuckled, "Here's hoping we rain on their party… I'll let you get squared away and get ready for stasis and our jump to Slipspace… The fleet should be ready for jump within 3 hours… If you need anything just let me know…"

"Thank you sir… I appreciate it." Michael said saluting the Captain. After the captain had returned the salute, Michael headed off the bridge to go down to the stasis deck to get ready for the Slipspace jump to New Constantinople.

* * *

Michael headed down to the stasis deck. He checked in with the crew manning the station and they confirmed that his equipment had been brought aboard and stored for the transit.

Unfortunately due to the design of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight (SFT) Engine that allowed human ships to enter Slipspace the trip to New Constantinople would still take at least 2 weeks and during this time the majority of the crew and passengers would have to stay in stasis in order to minimize consumption of air, power, water and food. The fleet would come out of Slipspace at the edge of the planetary system, regroup and then make its way in-system to join up with rest of the defense forces. The hope was that this relief force would arrive before the Covenant brought up reinforcements… The Covenant had much more accurate and powerful Slipspace engines. Either way the relief force would be in the dark until they exited Slipspace. The Navy was putting together another relief force and they would be following within ten days of this first fleet leaving.

Michael was used to being in stasis, the only thing that bothered him was the dreaming… You kept dreaming until you were brought out of stasis… You couldn't wake yourself up... you just dreamed.

* * *

Captain Kwong stood on his bridge. He looked over at the sensor display and could see the icons identifying the rest of the fleet under his temporary command. Before the war with the Covenant, this size and strength of task force would have struck fear into the insurrectionists, but now the hope was that the fleet would have the local numerical advantage to offset the Covenant's technological advantage.

Since the start of the war the UNSC had been able to capture Covenant tech, but it took time to study, understand and reverse engineer technology that you had no science or understanding of. The hope was to keep buying time to allow the UNSC to develop weapon systems equal to the Covenant.

The Captain maintained a calm exterior, but inside he was worried, "_With the Covenant locating and now invading the inner colonies… We may have run out of time… How much longer can we hold on?_" Captain Kwong thought not revealing his own worries and anxieties to his crew.

Captain Kwong turned to the navigation station, "Helm… Set course for Slipspace departure point… Inform the rest of the fleet to stagger their approach…"

"Aye Sir… Course laid in… Fleet acknowledges orders…" replied the crewman manning the navigation station.

"Thank you Helm…"

The captain then turned to a pedestal on the bridge, "Hermes… Please inform the crew to prepare for Slipspace jump."

A small holographic image of a man appeared on the pedestal. The shipboard AI looked at the Captain, "Understood Captain…"

The AI opened a com link across the ship and spoke, "Attention… Attention please… We are preparing for Slipspace jump… All designated personnel prepare for stasis… Repeat… All personnel prepare for jump… Thank you."

* * *

Michael fitted himself into the stasis cryochamber. He made himself as comfortable as possible. He was feeling some anxiety due to the dreams he knew he would experience while in sleep, but there was no alternative. The technician came over and made sure that the cryochamber tubes were connected to his battle armor correctly. The tubes would feed the chemicals required for stasis sleep into his armor and the bio-injectors inside his battle armor would pass through the chemicals to preserve and maintain him through to his body.

Michael saw the technician double check all the connections and gave Michael a thumbs up to indicate everything was good. The lid of the cryochamber closed and Michael focused on relaxing and breathing normally. He could feel a pinch followed by a slight tingling as his suit's bio-injectors started delivering the chemicals needed for stasis. Michael started to feel sleepy and his eyes closed and he started to dream…

* * *

The fleet reached its Slipspace departure point and each ship activated its Slipspace engine. Those crew members on each ship not in stasis watched either through viewports or video displays as the very fabric of space-time was torn open and an entry way to another dimension was opened. Each ship entered its own portal and disappeared into Slipsapce with the opening closing shortly afterwards leaving nothing behind but quiet and empty space…


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_The dreams were always the same… The world was on fire… People were screaming and crying… Monsters were everywhere… Michael could only watch helplessly… Sometimes the dreams were somewhat less disturbing… Michael would see himself when he was five years old… He saw the blue sky and green fields of his home… The sun felt warm as he ran laughing through the fields… He saw two people off in the distance… He couldn't make out their faces… He tried running as fast as he could to get to them, but he couldn't get close enough to see them… He could hear voices calling out… asking him the same questions over and over, "Who are you? What are you?"_

_Michael could feel the dream state start to end and he was aware that he was coming out of stasis… Just before consciousness returned, he had one final dream… Michael was in a room and a door opened on to a balcony and he could see outside a huge beautiful lake with the bluest sky and a forest surrounding the lake… Michael felt at peace… He saw a young woman he didn't recognize or had ever seen before standing on the balcony… She was beautiful with her brunette hair, but it was her eyes that spoke to him… They had strength, determination and love in them… The young woman spoke to him, "I love you Michael…" and Michael felt joy and happiness…  
_

* * *

**_Outer edge of New Constantinople System – June 11, 2536 – 1735 Local Time_**

It was empty and quiet on the outer reaches of the New Constantinople star system. Suddenly the emptiness and quiet of space was shattered as numerous portals tore open the fabric of space-time and ships re-entered normal space from Slipspace. The entries from Slipsapce continued at staggered intervals. The fleet was out of formation and dispersed across this area of space. Each ship quickly made adjustments to reform up into its battle formation as they came out of Slipspace and their status returned to normal.

On board the _UNSC Presidio_, Captain Kwong was reviewing the fleet's status and dispositions on the sensor and video displays on the bridge. He had a slight worried frown on his face as the fleet struggled to bring itself back into battle formation.

That was one of the Covenant's tech advantages, their Slipsapce engines and sensors were more accurate that they could jump complete battle formations intact through Slipspace into normal space. This gave the Covenant a tremendous tactical advantage as human fleets tended to end up arriving at staggered intervals and widely dispersed much like his fleet was currently experiencing.

"_We're lucky that the Covenant didn't have any picket ships out here otherwise it would have been ugly…_" the Captain thought.

Captain Kwong turned to his ship's communication station, "Com… What's the status of the fleet?"

The communications tech responded, "All ships have reported in… No problems reported… Sir."

"Inform the carrier _Georgia_ to launch a combat space patrol of Longswords… Inform all ships to maintain ECOM security protocols…. No need to further advertise our presence to the Covenant…" Captain Kwong ordered.

The Captain listened as his orders were passed to the rest of the fleet.

"Com… See if you can raise Vice-Admiral Whitcomb's fleet HQ… We should let him know that help is here."

"Aye Captain!"

The Captain waited for what seemed like an eternity, but then the communications tech spoke up, "Sir we are receiving a reply back… It's the Admiral himself!"

"Put the Admiral up on my video display…" replied the Captain.

"Aye Aye Sir!" the communications tech replied as he quickly transferred the Admiral over to the Captain's video console display.

Captain Kwong watched as the image of Vice-Admiral Whitcomb appeared on the screen. It was a little fuzzy, but viewable and understandable.

"Vice-Admiral…" the Captain said coming to attention.

"At ease Captain… It's good to see you again… I had hoped it would have been under better circumstances." replied the Vice-Admiral with a slight tired smile.

"I share your sentiments Sir…" replied the Captain with his own smile.

"What's your current status Sir?" the Captain asked quickly getting back to the business at hand.

"We're still holding on… We still have a good percentage of our orbital defense platforms still active, so with our ground defenses we are still containing their initial foothold. Ship losses are another matter… I'm glad you're here now… We have been using the fleet to counter Covenant reinforcement attempts, but you know what we are facing…" replied the Vice-Admiral sadly.

The captain nodded in understanding and then spoke, "Sir… I have ground reinforcements on two troopships… Once we unload we can take on civilians to evacuate from the planet..."

The Vice-Admiral's tired smile returned, "That would be most appreciated Captain… I'll send the approach vectors that will bring you to the planet. My ships and orbital platforms will cover you while you unload… Can you transmit the "order of battle" for the reinforcing units? I'll have my staff start working on how we can slot them into our ground force command structure… For your ships Captain, I would like you to remain in charge of your task force… I'll have my staff transmit the fleet command codes and slot your force into our battlenet… After you unload, your ships will fall back to the fleet support area and we'll conference then with the rest of the task force commanders and discuss our dispositions and strategy…"

"Understood Sir!" the Captain said coming to attention and saluting.

"Thank you Captain… See you soon." replied the Vice-Admiral returning the salute and ending the communication.

"Helm!" said Captain Kwong

"Aye Sir!" replied the crewman.

"Once we have received the Admiral's approach vectors, set course at best speed…" ordered the Captain.

"Aye Aye Sir!" replied the crewman at the navigation station.

"Com… Once we have received the approach vectors make sure that every ship gets them… Have all ships maintain alert condition yellow… If we don't run into the Covenant beforehand, when we get within 100 light seconds of the planet have all ships go to battle stations… Understood?" the Captain ordered.

"Aye Aye Sir!" was the reply from the communications station.

"Com… Also have all ships prepare for a quick disembarkation and unloading of all reinforcements and supplies to the planet's surface… I don't want to waste anytime hanging in orbit…" added the Captain.

"Understood Sir!" replied the communications tech.

Captain Kwong moved and sat down in his bridge chair, "_Now comes the hard part… getting to the planet and unloading…_" thought the Captain trying not to show his doubts and worry to the rest of his crew.

The task force changed direction towards the planet and increased speed…

* * *

Michael was out of stasis and fully-awake now. He couldn't really recall his last dream except for brief flashes, but this was the best he had felt coming out of a sleep in months. Michael quickly did a check of the systems in his Mark IV MJOLNIR battle armor. Everything appeared green and Michael then headed off to the equipment bay to gather his equipment to prepare disembarkation to the planet surface.

Michael reached the equipment bay. He could see that there was already a great deal of activity going on as the crew prepared all the supplies and equipment to be unloaded. To the outside observer it looked like everything was in a chaos, but to the trained eye it was a controlled and organized chaos…

Michael got to his equipment container that had accompanied him up on the Pelican. He opened it and went through the weapons stored in it. He pulled out his pistol first checking that the safety was engaged and then loading a full clip into the pistol and attaching to the magnetic hardpoint on his suit. He then placed five spare ammo clips into ammo storage areas that were built into his suit. Michael then reached in and grabbed his MA5 assault rifle which was the UNSC standard infantry weapon. Michael again checked to make sure that the safety was engaged and then loaded a full clip. He attached his assault rifle to the hardpoint on his back within easy and quick reach. He then grabbed and placed six spare clips into ammo storage areas on his suit. Michael then reached in and grabbed four standard fragmentation grenades and attached them to his suit's hardpoints. Michael did another check of his weapons and equipment and satisfied that he had everything he needed for now. He closed the equipment container and headed towards the launch bay. The task force would be entering the planet's orbit in six hours. Michael would wait in the launch bay until it was time to unload.

* * *

Michael was in the launch bay. He saw the same kind of "chaos" taking place in the launch bay as he had witnessed in the equipment and storage bays. Men and equipment were busily being prepared and loaded on to waiting Pelicans for transport down to the planet surface once the task force hit New Constantinople's orbit. Everyone knew that they couldn't waste anytime… The longer they hung around the more tempting the target they became for the Covenant… This meant that everyone rushed, but there was no sloppiness… Everyone also realized that mistakes injured or killed people, so all the safety rules and precautions were followed.

The hours ticked by and the tension on all the ships increased as the task force got closer to the planet. Michael had stayed out of way of the crew working in the launch bay. He occasional offered help to those crew that were experiencing delays and difficulties, but for the most part it was a sit and wait game.

Michael was going to report into the ship's Loadmaster to find out which Pelican he would be assigned to for the ride down to the planet. He was just starting to head in the direction of where he had last seen the Loadmaster, when he heard someone calling out to catch his attention. Michael's enhanced hearing and his battle suit's audio sensors could make out the voice over the noise of launch bay.

"Sierra-113… Over here!"

Michael turned and he saw a marine waving in his direction. Michael used his enhanced vision and helmet optics to get a better look of the person trying to catch his attention. Michael smiled as he recognized who it was and made his way over to the marine.

Michael stopped in front of the marine.

"Geez… I heard that there was a Spartan on board this tub, but I didn't think it would be your sorry hulking ass…" the marine spoke in a light hearted jest as he smiled at the Spartan.

Michael recognized the marine as Master Gunnery Sargent Dave Schmidt. Michael had been assigned to support the "Gunny's" fire team on a number of missions against the insurrectionists. Michael liked working with the Gunny and his fire team. Michael had a lot of respect for the Gunny as he was a lifer in the UNSC Marine Corps and was a cool and level-headed leader in combat.

"Good to see you Gunny… I didn't expect you to have been assigned to this ship." Michael replied.

"Well they need troops for this operation and you know how it goes…" Gunny Schmidt replied.

Michael chuckled inside his helmet.

"I haven't seen you since that cluster fucked op on Arcadia… How have you been doing?" the Gunny asked smiling.

"I've been doing well Gunny… I was just heading over to the Loadmaster to find out which Pelican I was assigned to…" Michael said.

"Hell with that! You can ride down with me and the rest of the team… I know that they would be happy to have a Spartan security blanket riding with them." laughed the Gunny as he slapped the Spartan on the back.

The Spartan followed the Gunnery Sargent back to the troop marshaling area to join up with the rest of the Gunny's fire team. Michael stood looking calm and relaxed in his battle armor. Most of the members of the fire team recognized the Spartan as he and the Gunny approached as they had worked with Michael before and this brought smiles to their faces and an inner sigh of relief of having a Spartan with them. There were a few new members to the fire team and those marines could only look in awe and disbelief at having a real life Spartan standing with them and going to be riding down to the planet's surface with them on a Pelican dropship.

Michael waited with the marine fire team as the time ticked down to when orbit was achieved. He could see the tension build, but everyone kept calm and cool. Michael just watched everyone as he found it difficult sometimes to interact socially with those not involved with the Spartan program. So much of what Michael was and did was classified top secret that rather than risk breaking security it was easier just to stay quiet and not interact. It actually worked out well for Michael as he spent that last moments before loading trying to recall that dream he'd had in stasis… It had been such a nice feeling…

"_If I could only remember what the dream was about…_" Michael thought as he tried to remember.

Finally an announcement was made over the ship's com system, "Attention all Personnel… We have achieved orbit around New Constantinople… Commence disembarkation… Repeat… Commence disembarkation…"

This caught everyone's attention and the marines and other soldiers heading to the planet's surface headed towards their assigned dropships to load up. Michael followed the Gunny and his fire team to their Pelican and was the last to load. Everyone secured their weapons and took a seat and strapped in. Michael squeezed himself in and made sure he wouldn't bounce around during re-entry.

The Gunny looked from his seat to where Michael was sitting as the Pelican prepped for launch, "You know what we need right now. Don't you…" the Gunny said smiling.

Michael chuckled in his helmet as the rest of the fire team groaned, "Come on Gunny… How about you give us a break… Just this once… Huh?" one of the marines said.

"Please Gunny… Take heart…" said another marine.

Michael looked around at the veterans of the fire team and they were smiling as well. This was an old established ritual of the Gunny's for every planet drop. Michael leaned back and as the sounds of a wailing guitar started to fill the troop compartment of the Pelican.

"You marines should learn to appreciate the classics…" the Gunny shouted over the music and vocals as "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix was playing as the Pelican launched into space.

Michael watched as the marines in the fire team sat back and thought about what they were going to face on the planet below us. Michael saw the Gunny lean back with a happy look on his face tapping his foot to the music…

* * *

On the bridge of the _UNSC Presidio_ the crew at the sensor stations got an energy spike on their sensor displays… They immediately raised the alarm…

"Captain! Slipspace rupture detected!" one of the sensor techs shouted causing the whole bridge to become quiet and everyone turned and looked at the Captain…

"_Shit! Not now!_" the Captain swore to himself.

"Bearing and range?" ordered the Captain.

"Bearing 238… Range… Make it just over 200kms…" reported the sensor tech.

The Captain let out a flurry of orders, "Helm… Bring us around to that bearing! Weapons… Bring the MAC on-line and prepare to fire as soon as we have a target lock and a firing solution! Com… Alert the rest of the task force to prepare to engage and send a warning to the dropships to disperse!"

Captain Kwong heard a flurry of "Aye Ayes" from his bridge crew, but he could only watch out the bridge view windows and check his video display as his worst nightmare became real as two Covenant SDV-class heavy corvettes came through the Slipspace rupture into the middle of his task force unloading…

* * *

The two Covenant corvettes entered normal space and immediately started to engage the human capital ships with their heavy plasma cannons. The UNSC warships started to return fire. Unfortunately the Pelican dropships were caught in the crossfire and they could only try to evade the heavy plasma fire as they made their way to the planet's surface…

* * *

Michael was listening to the music and watching the Gunny when he detected the increase whine of the Pelican's engines as they started to strain from increased power being applied and Michael could feel the Pelican start to change direction. Michael looked towards the cockpit of the dropship and he could see the pilots starting to make frantic course corrections…

* * *

The Pelican that Michael was on didn't have much chance or warning when the Covenant corvettes appeared and started firing. A shot from one of the corvette's heavy plasma cannons grazed by the Pelican… A direct hit would have vaporized the tiny dropship. Never the less the grazing plasma shot caused catastrophic damage to the Pelican.

Michael watched as the hull where the Gunny was strapped into gave way… The last image that Michael had of Gunny Schmidt was of him being sucked into space… It happened so fast that the Gunny still had that happy peaceful look on his face and that image would stay with Michael for the rest of his life.

The rest of the marine fire team and Pelican crew were either sucked into space or died strapped into their seats… Michael held on and prevented himself from being sucked out into space and he survived because of his battle armor and its rebreather system. Michael could see that the Pelican was shaking itself apart and he knew he didn't have much time left to escape. Michael did a check to make sure he had his weapons and pushed off to the hull rupture in the side of the Pelican. Michael looked out of the hole in the side of the dropship and he could see the space battle taking place…

Michael watched as he saw the UNSC ships fire MAC rounds and missiles at the Covenant warships… He saw the shields on the Covenant warships flare as hits registered… He saw the Covenant ships return fire and saw hits on the UNSC ships… caught in the middle were the dropships of the task force… He saw some of the Pelicans break apart from grazing shots spilling equipment and men into space… Some Pelicans simply disappeared as they took the full brunt of a plasma cannon shot…

Michael didn't waste any longer and he pushed himself out the hull rupture into space. It only seemed seconds later when the Pelican exploded sending fragments and debris hurling through space. Michael curled himself into a ball to try and minimize impacts and protect himself, but it wasn't enough as a huge piece of the Pelican struck him catching him in the helmet. Michael saw a flash in his helmet, felt a warm wetness on his face and blacked out…


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**_In orbit around New Constantinople – June 12, 2536 – 0518 Local Time_**

Captain Kwong felt his ship heave and bounce from another hit, "Damage report!" he yelled.

"Sir… Plasma hit on deck 14… Venting air into space… Compartment has been sealed off… Casualty reports still coming in… Also reports of damage and fires in Launch Bay 2… Fires are being contained…" the officer in charge of damage control reported.

Kwong turned to the weapons officer… "Weps… Maintain fire on the closest Covenant vessel!"

"Aye Aye Sir!" the weapons officer replied.

The Captain felt his ship shudder as another barrage of Archer missiles were launched… They couldn't use Shiva missiles with their nuclear warheads… Not with so many dropships still in close proximity.

"Com… Task force status?" the Captain ordered.

"Sir… The frigates _Highwayman_ and _Quiet World_ are gone… The frigates and destroyer _Aftermath_, _Boy Blue_ and _Snowy River_ are reporting heavy damage… The carrier _Georgia_ is reporting minor damage." the com tech reported.

The Captain was almost afraid to ask, "Status of the troopships and dropships?" he asked trying to keep the hesitation and fear from his voice.

"Troopships report no damage and they are withdrawing out of range and are going to land at the secondary landing point… The com traffic for the dropships is a mess… I'm still trying to sort through it, but it's bad sir…" the com tech responded.

"Thank you… Keep working on it and try to clear up the channel and get a status update on the dropships…"

The Captain turned back to face the battle… He could see small explosions in space and he could make out the Covenant corvettes more clearly now as the range was decreasing. He could see their shields flare from repeated strikes by MAC rounds and missiles.

A bridge crewman spoke up, "Captain! Orbital defense platforms are engaging the Covenant ships!"

"_About time…_" thought the Captain.

The bridge crew watched as the combined fire of the surviving task force ships and orbital defense platforms quickly overwhelmed the shields on the Covenant ships. Captain Kwong saw the shields on one of the corvettes fail and saw explosions detonate along its hull… Suddenly the corvette exploded in a bright searing white light causing the bridge crew to either shield their eyes or look away. The second corvette was trying to break off now and make its escape.

"_Oh no you don't you bastard… You're not getting away…_" thought the Captain angrily.

"Maintain fire on the remaining enemy target… I don't want him leaving here!" the Captain ordered.

The Captain watched as every ship and defense platform now concentrated their fire on the remaining Covenant ship. The alien ship struggled to escape and it appeared that it was trying to open a Slipspace jump point to escape. The Captain watched as the Slipspace opening started to form, but then watched it collapsed as the enemy corvette's shields flared brightly and they collapsed. Hits and explosions could now be seen striking and coming from the hull of the ship. The Covenant ship was no longer returning fire, but that didn't stop the UNSC ships from continuing their barrage of fire… They smelled blood and wanted the kill. It seemed like an eternity but it was only a few minutes after the corvette's shields collapsed that it too exploded in one final tremendous ball of fire and then it quickly subsided just leaving more debris floating in orbit around the planet.

"Cease Fire…" ordered the Captain as he took a breath to release his tension and realize that he had survived another battle.

"Get me a status update on task force damage and casualties?" the Captain followed up as he ran his hands over his face.

* * *

Michael finally regained consciousness. The first thing he noticed was the pain of the left side of his face and that he couldn't see out of his left eye. He could feel the blood on his face and he hoped that it wasn't too bad, but the second thing he noticed was that he had some yellow and red warning lights flashing on his helmet display. With his good eye he quickly checked his life support systems. His rebreather system showed that he had 60 minutes of air left. Michael realized if he controlled his breathing and minimized his movements he could probably stretch that out another 10 minutes, but he was floating in space and he needed to either find a ride down to the planet or back to the fleet.

As Michael floated in space, he could see the debris of the space battle. He figured that the UNSC had either won or driven off the Covenant as he could still see the UNSC ships still in orbit… It looked like the unloading operations had resumed.

Michael opened a com channel, "To anyone listening… This is Sierra-113… Repeat this is Sierra-113. I'm activating my beacon as my Pelican has been destroyed… Requesting pickup…"

Michael heard static on his com channel, but then a voice seemed to break through the static, "Sierra-113… This is Pelican 243… I read you… I have your beacon and I'm on approach… Should be on you in 10 minutes…"

Michael breathed a sigh of relief, "I read you Pelican 243… Good to hear your voice. Confirm ETA 10 minutes… I'll just hang out here until you arrive…" Michael replied.

The voice from Pelican 243 chuckled back, "Roger that… Just as long as you don't wander off."

Michael floated waiting for pickup. The ten minutes seemed like an eternity when floating in space and you were surrounded by debris and bodies from the destroyed Pelicans. Michael tried to not look at the frozen faces of the dead Marines… He recognized some of them from the Pelican he had been own… He wanted to remember those Marines as they were… not as frozen corpses drifting forever in space or until they burned up in the planet's atmosphere.

Michael saw the Pelican approaching him. As it got closer the pilot of the Pelican called on the com channel, "Sierra-113 I have you in visual… But we have a couple of problems here…"

Michael sighed, "Copy that Pelican 243… What's the problem?"

"We're having a problem with our O2 system and we can't cycle to decompress to lower our cargo door to bring you in…" replied the Pelican pilot.

"How long to get another ride over to me?" Michael asked.

"That's the other problem… All other dropships are busy… It could be at least another 50 minutes before one is available…" the pilot said with some hesitation.

"You got any ideas?" Michael asked.

"Yea I do, but you might not like it…" responded the pilot.

"Go ahead… I got nowhere else to go…" Michael said.

"How heat-resistant is your armor?" asked the pilot.

Michael shook his head slowly in disbelief as the pilot outlined his plan.

* * *

Michael watched as the approaching Pelican moved to come up underneath him. The dropship was moving very slowly and when it was under Michael it came to a stop. Michael could see the pilot waving to him and the Pelican started rising to get closer to Michael.

Michael was now close enough to touch the Pelican, "Pelican 243… I have contact…"

"Let me know when you are secure." the pilot responded back.

Michael scrambled to the middle section of the hull on top of the Pelican and found the maintenance crew handholds. Michael reached with each hand and grabbed a handhold and held on tightly. Michael tried to find a spot to dig his feet into to hold them in place.

"Pelican 243… I'm secure or as secure as I'm going to be… Let's go!" Michael said trying not to sound worried over this recovery plan.

"Roger that Sierra-113… Hang on tight… I'll try to give you a smooth ride down…" responded the pilot.

Michael felt the Pelican start to move forward and increase speed and he made sure that he had a strong grip on the handholds… For a normal person to do what Michael was about to do would have been impossible. It was only with the enhanced strength of a Spartan that this was even possible.

The Pelican began its entry into the planet's atmosphere. Michael was lying on top of the Pelican as it re-entered the atmosphere, Michael could see the heat plasma being generated by the Pelican's re-entry, but with Michael lying on top of the Pelican, the bulk of the dropship shielded Michael from the heat and his armor protected him from any residual heat.

That actually was not the worst part of the flight. The Pelican re-entered at an angle with its nose up, so Michael had gravity pushing him flat. When the Pelican hit the atmosphere and leveled out… that is when the ride got "really interesting".

The air turbulence whipped Michael around as he held on for his life. The pilot kept in constant communication contact with the Spartan, but Michael could only do brief acknowledgements as he was concentrating on holding on as he was being buffeted by air turbulence.

The pilot radioed flight control as he wanted to get on the ground as fast as possible as he didn't know how long the Spartan could hold on.

"Flight control… This is Pelican 243… We are declaring an emergency and requesting priority for landing…" the pilot called in.

It was a long moment and then flight control responded, "Pelican 243… We read you… What is the nature of your emergency as we have other emergency requests…?"

The pilot took a moment to figure out how he was going to word this request, "Uhhh… Flight control… We need to land as we currently have a Spartan hanging on to the outside of our bird and we need to get him down safely…"

There was a pause that seemed to last forever, "Uh… Pelican 243… Can you repeat that again? We thought you said that there was a Spartan on the outside of your ship?"

The pilot smiled as he replied to flight control, "That's an affirmative flight control… We picked up this Spartan up in orbit… We couldn't bring him inside… We need to get him on the ground now…"

The voice from flight control sounded like he was still having a hard time believing what he was hearing as he responded, "Uh… Pelican 243… You are Priority 1 for landing… Approach vector heading is 154…"

The pilot had to fight to contain his laughter as the person in flight control forgot to close the channel and spoke so that everyone heard on the open channel, "My god… A Spartan just did an atmospheric re-entry riding on the outside of a Pelican… Who do these guys think they are? Don't they realize that you are supposed to be inside the ship?"

"Sierra-113… We're 15 minutes out from the LZ… The turbulence should lessen as we get lower… We have priority for landing" the pilot said in a status update.

All Michael could manage to say was "Roger…" as he was getting tired from holding on and being buffeted around and he just continued on focusing holding on.

* * *

As the pilot approached the LZ, he saw a huge crowd gathering and he shook his head. Word of the Spartan riding on the outside of the Pelican had spread and everyone on the base wanted to see.

The Pelican pilot eased back on his speed and lowered his altitude and then went into hover mode and slowly eased his Pelican to the ground…

The 15 minutes felt like 15 hours for Michael. He only realized that he had made it when the Pelican was no longer moving forward and was now moving down. Michael still didn't let go even though his hands and arms ached from holding on for so long. When Michael felt the dropship bounce and it stopped moving did he know that he was on the ground and finally released his grip. Michael could still only see out his right eye, but he heard a loud cheer and commotion around him. Michael regained enough strength to lift his head and look around. He saw a huge crowd of UNSC personnel gathered around the landing pad looking up at him and cheering. Michael finally recovered enough to get down from the Pelican and he called for a medic as he removed his helmet to get his head wound tended to…

* * *

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb was reviewing the after-action reports of the relief task force. It had been a major stroke of bad luck that the Covenant had timed their attack when the task force had been at its most vulnerable. The Vice-Admiral reviewed the damage and casualty reports. That they had only lost two frigates had been a minor miracle… The damaged received by the other ships could quickly be repaired, so the majority of warships were still able to fight and reinforce his fleet. It was the losses in dropships and personnel that was the hardest to take… A full 35% of the dropships that were flying at the time of the attack were destroyed or damaged. In most cases where the damage occurred in space, it resulted in casualties… mostly KIA's. Some of the units that were being transported down were completely gone with no survivors along with their equipment and supplies.

As the Vice-Admiral reached the end of the report, the last paragraph caught his eye. As he read it, he could only shake his head in disbelief. It was a report of a Spartan… Sierra-113… that had his Pelican destroyed. The Spartan was rescued by another Pelican, but due to mechanical problems, the Spartan had to ride down on the outside of the Pelican during the re-entry and landing. The Spartan had been wounded the whole time during his ride.

The Vice-Admiral made a mental note to follow up on this Sierra-113. He would be able to use a Spartan like this for his defense of the planet…

* * *

Michael was still experiencing some pain on his face and a slight headache. The medics had patched him up. It appeared that when his helmet was struck by the space debris it caused a circuit to blow in his helmet and some of the fragments lodged into his face. The medics actually said he was quite lucky as he didn't lose the use or have any impairment in his left eye. The medics said he would have some blurry vision in the eye and some headaches for the next week, so they urged Michael to take it easy for now.

Michael looked at his face in the mirror. He now had a scar running vertically from the eyebrow over the eye socket and down his cheek on the left side of his face. The wound still looked raw and red. The medics said in time that Michael could get the scar removed by facial reconstruction, but Michael decided to leave it as is for a souvenir of his wild ride.

Michael took it easy for a couple of days to make sure his vision has recovered enough, but it was hard for him to sit around. There was a war going on and sitting around wasn't something a Spartan did unless the mission required it. Michael notified Naval Command HQ that he was ready for deployment. The response was an unexpected surprise as Michael was informed to standby for orders… Michael decided to use this "downtime" to follow up on his secondary mission.

One of the insurrectionist cells had been tracked to the small town of Ravenna. The town was a two hour Pelican ride from the base Michael was currently housed at. The UNSC military presence in that town and surrounding area was light as this town was located far from the fighting on the other side of the planet. Civilian refugees were just starting to relocate to the area as the fighting in other areas intensified. Overall the area was considered quiet… Michael's presence was sure to change that.

Using the ONI security clearances he had been provided, Michael arranged with the base commander for the "loan" of a Pelican for transport for him. The Pelican would do a night drop several klicks out of town and Michael would enter the town on foot. Once there he would try to locate one Kevin Anders. According to the briefing package, ONI suspected Mr. Anders of being a low-level insurrectionist supporter that had contacts with some of the major players in the area. ONI had ordered Michael to have a "conversation" with Mr. Anders and get the names of other "Innies" in the area… Michael planned for this OP to be a quick and quiet "in and out" mission. Once Michael had completed his mission he would signal the Pelican for pickup from the same DZ.

Michael checked his battle armor and weapons and prepared for the mission…


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**_On approach towards Ravenna – New Constantinople – June 16, 2536 – 2251 Local Time_**

The Pelican roared over the ground at low altitude towards its objective. Michael looked out the open cargo door of the Pelican as it flew through the night sky. With his enhanced vision and helmet optics, Michael could see everything as clear as day and he watched the ground pass underneath the Pelican.

A voice came through Michael's helmet com system, "Sierra-113… 2 minutes to LZ…"

"Copy that…" Michael replied to the Pelican pilot. Michael did a final check of his weapons and equipment bag attached to his battle armor. The Pelican began to slow down and started in for its approach to the designated LZ.

The Pelican pilot spoke again, "After dust-off we are going to move to our holding station… We'll hold on station for 3 hours… If we don't hear from you then, we'll make a pass over the LZ and then return to base and return at designated alternate pickup time… Understood Sierra-113?"

"Roger that… Hopefully worse case is a long walk home for me…" replied Michael trying to cut the tension.

"Copy that Sierra-113… Hope you brought your walking shoes just in case…" replied the pilot.

Michael could hear and feel the Pelican begin to slow down and start its landing approach. Michael saw through the cargo door as the ground got closer. The Pelican got within six feet of the ground when Michael saw the green drop light come on and heard the pilot callout, "Go… Go… Go…"

Michael's training and instinct kicked in and he was out the Pelican's cargo door and dropped to the ground and was moving away from the Pelican to avoid its engine's back blast as the Pelican quickly increased power and took off into the night sky. Michael quickly made it to the tree line surrounding the LZ and he stopped and kneeled for a moment. The engine sounds of the Pelican quickly faded and Michael used his battle armor systems to check for any threats. The motion sensors, thermal optics and audio system only picked up the sounds of the nighttime landscape and those nocturnal animals indigenous to the area.

Michael quickly oriented his NAV system in his helmet to the location of Ravenna and started moving towards the town. Michael moved at a quick Spartan speed and he had estimated that it would take about 15 minutes to reach the edge of town. Michael recalled the intel he had studied on his objective and the town. Ravenna was a fair-sized town with a population of just over 10,000. There was mostly agriculture and light industry in the town and surrounding area. The surrounding area had some low rising hills with forested areas and some heavy bush. With New Constantinople being one of the older "inner" colony planets it had been terraformed and there were no threats from any of the wildlife that had been imported to the planet or that were indigenous. Michael had some initial concern on how he was going to locate his target in the town, but it appeared that Mr. Anders had a small successful import/export business in Ravenna. ONI suspected that the business was being used to launder money for the insurrectionists and also provided Mr. Anders a cover to travel to different locations and order and transport equipment and supplies that could be utilized in a military capacity. The business location was on the south-east side of the town where most of the industry and warehouses were located in Ravenna. Michael didn't expect Anders to be there at this time of night, but ONI had ordered that the building and facilities be "taken out". Michael was going to stop at the building and plant delayed-action incendiary explosive charges.

Once Michael had visited the business location, he was going to make his way to Mr. Ander's home. Getting the address for Ander's home was not difficult as he maintained a visible presence in the town and Michael was able to find the address in the planetary electronic directory.

As Michael made his way to the town and he could see the glow of the lights get closer, his mind started to wander and he analyzed his secondary mission objectives. With the Covenant already having a foothold on the planet and with additional Covenant forces most likely already on the way to reinforce, why spend the time and effort trying to eliminate insurrectionists using a Spartan? It was inevitable that the Covenant would bring in massive reinforcements and that would make it almost impossible to hold the planet and the UNSC would be lucky if they could evacuate 10% of the civilian population. Michael knew that the Navy and Marines would defend as long as possible, but if the Covenant achieved space superiority it would be just a matter of time…

Michael continued analyzing ONI's mission objectives and they were almost taking on a fanatical vengeful tone… Remove these "traitors to humanity" was the term that the briefing officer on Reach had used. Michael wasn't naïve about his role and what he had been "developed" for and he had a lot of experience under his belt fighting "Innies". It just seemed that with the Covenant trying to kill all humans that humanity should be uniting rather than trying to kill each other or spending critical resources taking each other out… Michael shook his head to regain his focus as he got closer to the first location, but he had to wonder how many of his other brother and sister Spartans had these same thoughts and feelings…

* * *

Michael was able to quickly locate and access Ander's business facilities. The security system wasn't too much trouble for Michael to circumvent. Michael had a satellite photo of the business in his briefing package and he had committed the layout to memory and also the optimal points to place the incendiary charges to destroy the building and facilities. Michael moved like a ghost through the darkness and shadows as he planted the charges and recorded information of what was being stored at the facility using his battle armor cameras and recording devices. As Michael moved through the storage areas, he noted there was a large volume of emergency food rations and medical supplies. All this could be useful with the defense of the planet and Michael was almost tempted to break radio silence and try to contact ONI on the emergency frequency to abort this portion of the mission. Michael even considered going directly to Vice-Admiral Whitcomb to have him send in an ODST unit to seize these supplies, but ONI's order had been firm and inflexible. Michael noted how close other businesses were to Ander's building and storage areas and there was going to be the potential of "collateral damage", but ONI wasn't worried about any excessive damage being caused or potential of innocent bystanders being injured or killed… Removing the insurrectionist threat was the priority… At any and all costs!

Michael had made sure that the charges were well hidden and had set the charges to go off in 90 minutes. This would give him enough time to go see Mr. Anders and have a "chat" with him. Michael made his way to Mr. Anders's home…

* * *

Kevin Anders was trying to get a decent night's sleep, but it had been hard getting a good night's sleep ever since the Covenant had invaded the system and landed on the planet. The UNSC was putting up a good fight and had contained the Covenant for now, but Kevin was a pragmatist and he knew that if the Navy couldn't hold the Covenant in the outer colonies they sure as hell weren't going to stop them here. There was much to do and arrange before the planet fell. He not only had to make sure that the insurrectionist supplies and equipment got off planet, he had to make arrangements for his wife and two children to get out as well. Anders knew that the Navy had already started evacuations of civilians, but they were starting with those towns and cities closest to the fighting and even then the majority of the civilian were being relocated to refugee camps on planet and only a very small percentage was being evacuated off-planet.

Anders was a committed insurrectionist as he believed that the power of the UNSC had gone too far and the laws and taxes they had imposed on the people were causing too much hardship. Anders had no love for the UNSC, but it was amazing how an alien species bent on killing you, your family and your race would suddenly make you cheer (at least quietly behind closed doors) and hope that they would be victorious. Anders went over in his mind the arrangements he was making with his insurrectionists contacts to get his family off-world. His contacts had said that if he got the huge supply of food and medical supplies, currently in his business's storage areas, off-world to the hidden insurrectionist supply base located in the Eridanus system then arrangements would be made to get his family transported to another inner colony that was currently safe from the fighting… This had highly motivated Anders to make sure that this shipment got through with no problems… no matter what the cost.

Anders decided that trying to sleep was not going to work and he thought he would get up and go into his home's living room to check the latest vid-cast reports on the fighting. Kevin got out of bed quietly making sure that he didn't disturb his wife. He took a look back at his wife of 10 years and hoped that they would have a chance to have another 10 years together. Kevin made his way through the hall of his home and he looked in his children's bedroom. The boys were both too young to understand what was happening and he saw the toys and models of the UNSC spaceships and planes on their shelves. Anders shook his head and hoped that they would have a chance to grow up. Anders made his way into the living room and reached for the remote control to turn on the display screen on the wall. As he reached for the remote control, Anders heard a noise. Before he could turn around he was hit on the back of the head and fell unconscious to the floor. The Spartan caught Ander's body before it hit the ground, so that there was no noise. The Spartan took Anders away making no noise… It was like he had never been there.

* * *

The darkness and fog started to clear as Anders came too and he felt his body in pain. His head ached and his shoulders, arms and wrists were throbbing in pain. As he became more aware of his surroundings he realized what his situation was and it wasn't very good. He found that he had his hands bound together and the plastic restraint tie was hanging over a very solid tree branch that had him dangling just over the ground that his feet just couldn't touch. He was also stripped naked. Ander was trying to keep himself from panicking as he realized he was in a very exposed position. As he tried to move and get leverage and the restraints cut into his wrists a voice called out of the darkness.

"You don't look very comfortable…"

Anders turned his head to face the voice and watched as a huge robot came out of the darkness like a ghost not making a sound.

"You are Kevin Anders… You are a resident of the town of Ravenna on the planet New Constantinople… You own and run a small import/export business… You are married… Wife's name is Helen and two children… Josh age 7 and Trevor age 9… You are also a member of the insurrection…"

Anders just stared at the robot as he recited all his personal information.

Michael was recording the whole interrogation and he was nothing but thorough when he did these field interrogations. Michael knew you only got one chance in these situations and fortunately (or unfortunately) he had a gained a lot of experience doing these sorts of interrogations.

"Wh…Who… Who are you? Wh...What do you want?" Anders managed to say. His mouth felt so dry as he tried to focus and not panic as he looked at the very scary and serious looking robot.

"Just answer the question and if you answer all my other questions you may get out of this alive…" Michael lied to the prisoner as ONI's orders had been very explicit in this regards.

"Su…Su…Sure I'm Kevin Anders… I own a business… But I'm no insurrectionist… You've made a mistake… It's just a misunderstanding… Please…" the prisoner replied pleading.

Michael studied the prisoner and he could see that it probably wouldn't take much work to get Anders to speak.

"I want the names and locations of your contacts on this planet…" Michael said as he studied Anders's facial expressions.

"I don't know anything… You're with ONI aren't you? There's been a mistake… It's just all a misunderstanding!" Anders said as he continued to plead.

Michael could see that Anders was trying to stall and he sighed.

"I had hoped we could do this fast and not get into the nasty and messy business, but you seem to not understand the situation you are in…" Michael said as he pulled out his combat knife from his shoulder scabbard.

Michael could see Anders's eyes widened, "Oh God…. Please… No… Like I said you've got the wrong guy!" Anders's voice started to get higher and with a shrill as he started to panic at seeing the knife.

Michael could see that the prisoner was getting closer, but he needed to enforce the point. Michael reached into his equipment bag and pulled out a roll of duct tape. Michael quickly ripped a strip off and placed it across Anders's mouth.

"There's been no mistake… We know you have been shipping supplies to the Innies and laundering money for them from some of their criminal activities… Bank robberies… Drugs and weapons smuggling… Human smuggling and prostitution… What would your wife say about your activities?" Michael said still looking at Anders.

Michael pulled out a small blow torch and turned it on and got the flame to an intense blue color. Anders's eyes became huge and he started whimpering, but with his mouth taped he couldn't say much.

Anders could only watch helplessly as the evil looking robot took the blow torch and started heating up the knife. Anders could see the blade of the knife start to glow and he lost control of his bladder…

Michael watched as Anders urinated himself from fear. Anders was very close to breaking. Michael knew what he had to do next… A part of his mind said that he could hold back and just mind-fuck the guy a little more, but there was no guarantee that the info he would provide would be reliable. He had to make the prisoner understand where the power was and that there was only one path. Michael had his combat knife blade glowing red from the heat. The blade could easily stand up to the heat. Michael grabbed one of Anders's feet and lifted the foot. He took the red hot blade and placed it flat against the bare bottom of Anders's foot. Michael could see Anders's eyes bulged even larger and could hear his muffled screams through his taped over mouth.

"You understand that this will continue until you co-operate?" Michael said as he saw the tears of pain run down Anders's face.

"If you refuse to answer my questions or if I feel what you tell me is not truthful… You will force me to pull more tools out of my equipment bag… You don't want to know what I have in there…" Michael said using a more menacing tone.

Michael applied the knife blade to Anders's other foot and Anders screamed and cried and lost control of his bowels.

Michael reached up and pulled the tape off Anders's mouth roughly. Anders whimpered and cried and was breathing hard.

"PPPPlease... If I tell you anything… They'll not only kill me… They'll kill my family… If I talk… You got to promise to protect my family… Get them off-world!" Anders said between his hard breathing.

"You're not really in a position to negotiate anything…" Michael replied.

"In my storage areas… Supplies… Lots of supplies… For the Innies… Going to be shipped off-world…" Anders said between heavy sobs.

"I already know about the supplies…" Michael said as he checked the countdown timer on his helmet display, "…in about 12 minutes… The supplies and your business will be turned to ashes…"

Anders's eyes widened, "Oh god… No! Please if those supplies get destroyed… I won't be able to get my wife and kids off-planet… You know the Covenant are going to wipe-out everyone… Please… Please…" Anders said as he sobbed.

Michael could see that he had broken Anders. A part of Michael could feel for Anders and his desire to save his family, but ONI's orders were absolute…

"I…I…" Michael hesitated as he started to say the lie to get Anders to talk. He knew he could just say whatever Anders wanted to hear… Anders was a dead man either way. For some reason Michael knew that he had to do something… If he couldn't protect and save one mother and her kids… What was the point of it all?

"I'll see what I can do…" Michael finally replied.

"Swear it! Please swear that you'll get my family out when the time comes and I'll tell you everything!" Anders said as he now realized that he was dead man. If he didn't die here, the other insurrectionists would kill him shortly afterward… Anders realized that if he died here and his business and supplies were destroyed the insurrectionists would leave his family alone. If he tried to trick this "robot" it would just leave his family behind for the Covenant to kill. He had no choice but to hope and trust that this "robot" would save his family.

Michael could feel his conscience tear at him. He had his orders, but there was also his duty… a greater duty and oath. He looked at the broken, burned and bleeding man hanging there and he knew that this was all his fault… There was nothing he could do for this man as he was a declared enemy, but maybe there was something he could do… something he should do.

Anders looked at the robot as it stared at him with its gold tinted visor and he watched with awe as the robot reached up and appeared to remove its head. Anders realized that the "head" was in fact a helmet and he found himself looking into the face a young looking man… he must have been only in his mid-twenties… Anders almost started to laugh, but stopped as he looked at the young man's face… There was a nasty looking scar that ran down the left side of his face, but it was the young man's eyes that caught him… They were the most intense and powerful eyes that he had ever seen… There was power and strength there… along with pain and sadness…

Anders could only look as the young man said, "You tell me everything… I swear that I will protect and get your family off-planet if we can't hold off the Covenant…"

Anders had been in business a long time and he had heard men swear oaths and promises and then break them without a second thought… He had been one of those men, but this young man was something different… Anders thought that maybe he was trying to believe what he saw, but he could swear that this young man would move heaven and earth to keep his oath to protect his family or die trying…

Anders could only say weakly, "Thank you… Thank you."

* * *

Michael had stopped all video and audio recording before he took off his helmet. He knew that he was going off script and ONI would be furious, but where did his duty lay… He knew that if this had been a stand-up fight against the Innies that he would have no second thoughts or doubts, but this was different.

Michael took off his helmet to give Anders his oath as a Spartan and he planned to see it through and make sure that Anders's family got off planet.

"_Screw ONI on this… I'll get their information and destroy the supplies… They'll get what they want…_" Michael thought.

Michael put his helmet back on and turned back on all the video and audio recording devices. Anders spilled his guts… He gave names and locations not only for the cells on New Constantinople, but for anything he knew off-planet as well.

Anders was exhausted and drained after he had told the young man everything he knew about the insurrectionist groups that he was in contact with. He looked at the young man with his helmet back on… For some reason Anders felt at peace… He had known that there were risks and he could die fighting for the "Innies", but knowing that his wife and kids had a chance… That brought some comfort in these final moments.

"You'll make it quick… Won't you?" Anders asked calmly.

"Yes… I'll make it quick…" replied Michael.

Anders still in his calm state asked, "If you don't mind me asking… What are you? Do you have a name?"

Michael stepped closer to Anders and spoke with sadness in his voice, "My name is Michael… I am a Spartan…"

Anders nodded and Michael quickly and deeply slashed across Anders's throat severing the carotid artery. Anders could only look as his life blood flowed out of his throat. Michael watched as Anders's eyes glazed over as blood pumped from the open wound. Anders passed quickly and all Michael could do was watch and he looked at the blood on his hands and armor.

Michael kept looking at Anders's lifeless eyes. It was then that Michael heard explosions in the distance. He turned towards the town of Ravenna and saw the glow of flames in the distance. Michael turned slowly back to the dead body hanging from the tree branch. Michael cut down the body and hid it in the brush. Michael didn't have time to bury the body as he had to make his way back to the pickup LZ.

Michael made it back to the LZ with lots of time to spare before the Pelican arrived. As Michael sat and waited for pickup, he reviewed all the events and his oath to the man he had tortured and killed. He looked down and still saw Anders's blood on his armored hands and arms.

Michael heard the engines of the approaching Pelican and knew that he would be back at base in a couple of hours, but he wondered if he would ever get the blood off his hands…


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**_New Constantinople – June 19, 2536 – 0932 Local Time_**

Vice-Admiral Danforth Whitcomb was at his desk reviewing the daily intelligence reports and troop and fleet status reports on his display console. Whitcomb didn't show any outward emotion as he reviewed the electronic reports, but inside he was getting worried. He had managed to contain the Covenant invasion so far, but it was only a matter of time before the Covenant sent in massive reinforcements. The Vice-Admiral knew if they could eliminate the foothold that the Covenant had on the planet, and if they could rebuild the planetary defense network then there was a chance to hold off the Covenant for now… There were a lot of ifs involved. The first objective was to maintain local space superiority and then hit the Covenant on the ground and that meant taking out the heavily shielded Command and Control (C&C) sites and supply depots. Nukes fired from space by themselves wouldn't be able to penetrate the Covenant shields… This would require a ground assault and fortunately the Vice-Admiral had the resources to execute this kind of mission. Whitcomb smiled to himself as he started outlining his counter-attack plan…

Whitcomb's staff was to say the least shocked as the Vice-Admiral outlined his attack plans at the daily briefing session, but they quickly recovered and started work on the offensive…

* * *

**_UNSC Firebase Mitchell – New Constantinople – June 20, 2536 – 0815 Local Time_**

Michael had spent the last couple of days resting from his mission for ONI. He felt emotionally drained after his mission and he hadn't been sleeping well. He had forwarded to ONI the treasure trove of information that Anders had provided. Michael waited for some sort of rebuke or questioning of his methods in his handling of the mission, but there had been no response back from ONI except for an acknowledgement of receipt of the collected intelligence.

Michael had reviewed the news databases for information out of Ravenna. There was a report of the fire and destruction of Anders's business premises. The news reports said that investigators labeled the fire as "suspicious" and they had wanted to interview Anders, but he was reported to be missing the same night leaving behind his wife and two sons. Michael sighed as he read that last part of the news report… Anders's body wouldn't be found for quite a while and decomposition and wild animals would probably hide most of the signs of the field interrogation. Investigators may write off Anders's murder as a business deal gone bad and nothing would be traced back to ONI. Anders's family would probably never know what had happened to him…

Michael shook his head to get rid of the thoughts he was having. He was a Spartan and he had his mission and orders to follow. Michael still had to plan how he was going to keep his promise and get Anders's family off-planet. Michael didn't want to leave it till the last minute… Maybe he could use his ONI security clearances to get spots for the family on one of the evacuation transports… Michael just had to make sure that ONI didn't get a whiff of what he was planning and he had to be able to keep track and tabs on the family…

Michael was going over plans, when his video com display chimed to signal an incoming video message. Michael answered the video com, "Sierra-113 here…"

The face of a man in his early thirties appeared on the screen, "Sierra-113… This is Commander James Wright… I am Vice-Admiral Whitcomb's chief of staff…"

This immediately brought Michael to a higher state of attentiveness, "Yes Commander… What can I do for you?" Michael replied.

"The Vice-Admiral wants to meet with you ASAP… He is going to be in the city of Antioch today for meetings… We have a Pelican waiting for you on the landing pad… It's a 3 hour ride from your firebase, so the sooner you can get here the better…" the Commander said stating the order.

"Yes Sir… I will be ready to go within 30 minutes. I just need to armor up and check my equipment…" Michael replied.

The commander looked at Michael funnily, "Sierra-113… I don't think you need to armor up for a meeting with the Vice-Admiral…"

"Begging the Sir's pardon… I'm a Spartan and this is an active warzone… I would rather be safe than sorry…Sir!" Michael replied using a tone saying that this was not up for discussion.

"Okay… Just make sure you're on that bird in 30 minutes…" Commander Wright said shaking his head slightly.

"Understood Sir! Sierra-113 out…" Michael said as he watched the Commander cut the video com channel.

* * *

Michael made it down to the landing pad and boarded the Pelican in 28 minutes. As the Pelican crew prepared for lift-off and the long flight to Antioch, Michael settled himself into his seat and did a quick check of his suit's systems. He sat back and thought about why he was being summoned by the Vice-Admiral.

"_Something must be going down now… At last! Here's my chance…_" Michael thought as he tried to not be too restless on the long flight.

* * *

Michael looked out the Pelican's open cargo door as it began its descent to land in Antioch. It was a fair size modern looking city and had a large population as one of the older cities on New Constantinople. As the Pelican touched down on the landing pad, Michael could see an UNSC officer standing beside a Warthog outside the blast radius area of the Pelican's engines. Michael made his way out the Pelican's cargo door and started walking towards the officer and the Warthog. The officer started moving towards Michael at the same time and they met sort of half-way between the Pelican and Warthog.

Michael saw the officer come to attention in front of him and salute. Michael couldn't help but notice how young the officer looked. Michael smirked inside his helmet at the thought, "_Here I am commenting on how young a soldier looks and I'm only 25 years old myself… With 19 years of service…_"

The officer spoke somewhat nervously at being in the actual presence of a Spartan, "Sierra-113… I'm Lieutenant Marcus Prescott… I'm to drive and escort you to Vice-Admiral Whitcomb…"

Michael had also come to attention and returned the officer's salute, "I take it that's our ride?" Michael said pointing at the Warthog.

"Yes Sir!" replied the young nervous officer.

"Take it easy Lieutenant… First of all you can stop saluting me… I'm not an officer… My field rank is Chief Petty Officer… I'm the one that should be saluting you… So just relax and take me to see the Admiral…" Michael said trying to calm down the nervous Lieutenant.

"Yes Sir… er… I mean… Yes Chief…" replied the Lieutenant.

"I would rather you just call me Sierra-113 or 113… I'm more comfortable with it…" Michael said and he saw the young nervous Lieutenant nod in understanding.

Michael moved to get in the passenger side of the Warthog as Lieutenant Prescott got into the driver's seat of the Warthog and started up the engine of the vehicle. As soon as Prescott saw that the Spartan was seated he drove off and started the drive to the location that the Vice-Admiral was using as a temporary headquarters for his visit to Antioch…

* * *

The drive to the Vice-Admiral's HQ was quick and uneventful. Michael studied the city and the layout of the areas they drove through. The Lieutenant was quiet and didn't engage the Spartan in any small talk which Michael was grateful for as he wasn't that comfortable or familiar with all the small social nuances that people did… Being "recruited" at age six and spending all your formative years in a military-structured training environment didn't teach you much on how to socialize with other people. The Spartans could socialize (if you could call it that) amongst themselves as they had that shared common experience of everything they had gone through. Michael even found that he had a hard time "socializing" with his brother and sister Spartans, he preferred being by himself… it was probably one of the biggest reasons he did a lot of missions solo. Michael could and would work within groups and with others when the mission required it, but there was something to be said for being by yourself… It was in those situations that he felt in complete control of his life… that he felt _free_.

They reached the building where Whitcomb's HQ was housed and the Lieutenant drove the Warthog into an underground vehicle bay. There was a lot of activity going on with officers talking and enlisted ranks working on vehicles and performing other tasks, but the noise and work seemed to subside and everyone watched as they saw a Spartan exit a Warthog and follow the Lieutenant to the building's elevator. Everyone started talking and murmuring amongst themselves… Things tended to happen whenever a Spartan was around.

* * *

Michael and the officer escorting him exited the elevator on the top floor of the building. Again as Michael and his escort walked across the floor they drew stares from the staff that stopped working at the sight of the Spartan. Michael and Lieutenant Prescott reached an outer office door and an officer stood to greet them. Michael recognized the officer as Commander Wright from the video conversation.

"Commander…" Michael said as he and the Lieutenant both came to attention.

The Commander nodded at both men, "At ease… Thank you Lieutenant Prescott… I'll take it from here…" Commander Wright said dismissing the other officer.

"Yes Sir!" the young officer replied and turned to head away.

"If you'll follow me Sierra-113… The Vice-Admiral is expecting you." Commander Wright said as he turned and lead the Spartan through the door into the office.

As Michael entered the office he took a quick note of his surroundings. The office was equipped with a desk and video terminal and there was a large command table which could project information either on the table screen or in a 3D holographic format above the table. There were a couple of chairs and a small sofa off against another wall. Michael noted that the office was plain, but very efficient and functional. Michael saw Vice-Admiral Danforth Whitcomb sitting at his desk reviewing his electronic tablet. Michael noted that the Vice-Admiral cut a very confident and striking impression. Whitcomb was in his late-forties and was considered one of the best and brightest of the UNSC Navy. Michael was also aware of the Vice-Admiral's earlier work on the first prototypes of battle armor that eventually evolved and was developed into the current Mark IV MJOLNIR battle armor system that Michael wore. Michael came to attention in front of the Vice-Admiral's desk. Commander Wright also came to attention off to one side.

"Sir… Spartan Sierra-113 is here as you requested…" Commander Wright said.

Whitcomb looked up from his tablet and looked at the Spartan. Michael could see that Vice-Admiral was trying to size him up.

"Thank you Commander… That will be all for now…" Whitcomb said dismissing his chief of staff.

After the Commander had closed the door behind him, the Admiral stood and walked from behind his desk towards the Spartan. Michael was taken aback a bit as the Vice-Admiral held out his hand to the Spartan.

"Good to meet you Sierra-113… I'm glad we have you here with us." the Vice-Admiral said showing a genuine smile.

Michael quickly recovered and shook Whitcomb's hand, "Anything I can do to help… I will Sir!" Michael replied showing his own genuine enthusiasm.

"Excellent!" replied the Vice-Admiral.

The Vice-Admiral looked at the Spartan again trying to size up this soldier. Whitcomb had a high security clearance and had done work with ONI before on "Black Projects", but the Spartan project was shrouded in the highest security and Whitcomb had only heard whispers about the project, but from what the Admiral had heard and pieced together was enough to give him grey hairs and he could only look at this soldier and wonder if what had been done to him was worth the cost.

"Please… Make yourself comfortable… Sierra-113." the Vice-Admiral said offering the Spartan a seat.

"Thank you Sir, but I prefer to stand…" Michael replied, but as a compromise he removed his helmet.

The Vice-Admiral had heard stories of the Spartans and had used them in operations before, but he was still taken aback when he saw the face of Sierra-113 and saw how young he looked. Whitcomb noted the fresh looking scar running down the left side of the Spartan's face and recalled the report of how the Spartan had done an orbital re-entry ridding on the _outside_ of a Pelican. The other thing that struck the Vice-Admiral was the Spartan's eyes… They looked older than what the Spartan's physical age would suggest. Whitcomb could also see the strength and determination in there as well… Whitcomb knew that he had the right person for the mission he had in mind.

"I have a mission that requires your particular skills… Would you be interested?" the Vice-Admiral said.

Michael replied back enthusiastically, "Yes Sir!"

The Vice-Admiral arched an eyebrow at the Spartan's enthusiasm and continued speaking, "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you may want to temper it until you've heard what the mission is… I hope that this won't interfere with your work for ONI."

Michael was taken aback by the Vice-Admiral's knowledge of what was supposed to be a classified mission on a "need to know" basis. Whitcomb couldn't help but smile as he had frazzled the Spartan with his knowledge of ONI operations.

"At ease son… There's nothing that happens in this system without me hearing or knowing about it. I have enough contacts in ONI that they gave me a heads up… I want you to understand that my primary mission is defending this system and planet and I will not tolerate any ONI "distractions" that put that at risk… Do I make myself clear?" the Vice-Admiral said in a tone where there could be no misunderstanding.

"Crystal Sir!" Michael replied with a sense of relief to get that weight somewhat off his back.

The Vice-Admiral moved over to the command table and Michael followed. The Vice-Admiral punched in some commands and a holographic 3D representation of New Constantinople appeared over the table. The majority of the planet was colored green except for a large red splotch on one section of the planet.

"As you can see we have managed, at great cost, to contain the Covenant beachhead on this planet. Between the fleet and planetary defenses we have contained any advance, but it is only a matter of time before the Covenant brings in massive reinforcements… We need to remove their foothold before those reinforcements arrive…" Whitcomb said outlining the current situation to the Spartan.

"Your main problem will be getting rid of the Covenant's command and control centers and supply depots… They'll be heavily shielded…" Michael said outlining his take on the strategic situation.

"That's exactly the problem… If we try to go over the ground, it will take longer and we'll suffer high causalities… We need to hit hard and fast." the Vice-Admiral replied impressed with the Spartan's quick grasp of the situation.

"It sounds like you want to hit all those sites at the same time and the only way you are going to do that is through an orbital drop… That is very risky Sir." Michael replied.

Whitcomb couldn't help but smile as the Spartan picked up on his plan, "Yes there is risk involved, but it is a calculated risk… ground forces will make feint attacks to draw the Covenant's attention groundside… We will then send the fleet in hard and fast to gain space superiority over the Covenant foothold if even for a temporary basis… Spartan Alpha Company will lead the main drop on the primary Covenant command and control center. The ODST 14th and 18th battalions will drop to take out the main supply depots. Your task will be to take out a secondary command and control center… We're going to be stretched thin on these missions… We can send in a marine fire team by Pelican once you have secured a LZ otherwise you're on your own for this mission. At a minimum if we cannot destroy the objectives, we need to take down the shields and we can nuke them from orbit…"

Whitcomb watched the Spartan as he studied the map and the objective points.

"Can I get some equipment drops when I go in?" Michael said as he studied the holographic map and zoomed in on his objective area.

"Anything you need… You let us know and you've got it!" replied Whitcomb.

"When do we go?" Michael asked the Vice-Admiral.

"We're waiting on some more ships coming in from Reach and finishing repairs on our most damaged ships… We go at the earliest in ten days… No later than 14 days… The longer we wait the harder it will be as you know." Whitcomb replied.

"I have just two more requests Sir." Michael said.

"Like I said son… Anything you need just ask." replied the Vice-Admiral.

"I would like detailed topographical maps of my objective area to study…" asked Michael.

"Done. What's the second request?" answered the Vice-Admiral.

"Uh… This is somewhat more difficult… I have three people… A woman and her two children that need to be evacuated off-planet." Michael said with some hesitation.

The Vice-Admiral's eyebrows arched in surprise at this request, "May I ask why these people are so important to be evacuated?"

"Sir… It's related to my ONI missions… I'm under orders to not discuss them, but these people were important to a recent ONI investigation and they should be evacuated as soon as possible to a safe haven…" Michael replied somewhat uncomfortably as he was not used to asking favors, especially from flag rank officers and that he was also bending the truth.

"Do these people have anything to do with your trip to Ravenna several nights ago and the fire they had there?" the Vice-Admiral asked in a curious tone.

Michael was shocked that the Vice-Admiral had that much knowledge of ONI operations, but he quickly regained his composure, "Sir… Like I said I'm under orders to not discuss my ONI missions, but I wouldn't ask for this favor if it wasn't important… I gave my oath… my word that I would make sure that these people would get off planet…"

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb heaved an internal sigh. His contacts had given him a good idea of what ONI had wanted the Spartan to accomplish here on New Constantinople, "_Damn it! I'm no fan of the Innies, but we have enough troubles fighting the Covenant that we have to waste a precious resource like a Spartan for assassination missions._" Whitcomb thought furiously.

The Vice-Admiral finished his thoughts, "_Well I can't have my Spartan worrying about civilians and his oath… Not at this time can I?_"

"Make sure you provide the names and details of the civilians to Commander Wright on your way out and I'll make sure that they are off on the next evacuation transport… You have my word on that!" Vice-Admiral Whitcomb said as he made eye contact with the Spartan to show his seriousness and commitment.

"Thank you Sir! I very much appreciate this… I'll make sure that target is turned to rubble." Michael replied coming to attention and saluting the Vice-Admiral.

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb could see in the Spartan's eyes that he had gained his trust and commitment. Whitcomb only hoped that the Spartan was good enough and lucky enough to complete his mission and survive...


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**_UNSC Firebase Mitchell – New Constantinople – July 1, 2536 – 0522 Local Time_**

The base was busy with activity even at this early time of the morning. The ground attack feint that was to draw the Covenant's attention had started twenty-four hours earlier. From the reports that Michael had heard and seen, the fighting was intense and brutal, but it appeared to be having the desired affect that the Admiral had planned for. Michael was headed towards a Pelican that was going to take him up to orbit to rendezvous with the Paris-class heavy frigate _UNSC Before The Dawn_. The frigate was going to take Michael to his orbital insertion point over his objective and drop him along with other orbital drop pods loaded with extra equipment and ammo. Michael had also planned on a couple of "special-configured" drop pods to be dropped closer to the Covenant command center that were rigged to provide a nasty surprise for the Covenant and hopefully provide a distraction and cover for him.

As Michael boarded the Pelican and doubled checked his equipment, he felt the anticipation of both excitement and fear… Michael was not a novice in combat, but this was his first time in a large scale operation against the Covenant and he feared failing in his duty and oath. He feared not being able to measure up to his brother and sister Spartans.

One thought passed briefly through his mind as the Pelican lifted off, he had heard from Commander Wright, Vice-Admiral Whitcomb's chief of staff, that one Catherine Anders and her two children had been evacuated two days earlier. Commander Wright said that the civilians would be sent back first to Reach and then would be relocated to Earth. Commander Wright noted that the woman had first been reluctant to leave as her husband had been reported missing, but Commander Wright had explained in person that the evacuation arrangements had already been made for her and her children. The woman finally packed up and Commander Wright said he personally had escorted the woman and her children to the evacuation transport.

Michael was thankful, but not really surprised that the Vice-Admiral had kept his word. Everything that Michael had read about the Vice-Admiral had said he was a honorable man and a straight-shooter. Michael sighed as he felt that a burden had been lifted from him.

"_Whatever happens to me today… I'll be dropping clean… I kept my word._" Michael sighed as he thought about the oath he had made to the man he had killed. Michael refocused on his mission and he went over in his head the layout of the objective area and where his and the other drop pods were going to land. The equipment drop pods were tagged with IFF transponders and Michael would activate them on landing, so that he could quickly find them on his helmet display.

As the Pelican achieved orbit, Michael looked forward and could see out the pilot's cockpit the huge gathering of UNSC warships. Michael couldn't help but feel awe at the numbers of ships and the amassed firepower that had been assembled for this operation, but in the back of Michael's mind there stirred a thought… "_Will it be enough against the Covenant?_"

* * *

On the bridge of the Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser _UNSC Vauban_, Vice-Admiral Danforth Whitcomb looked out the bridge observation window and then turned and looked at the sensor and navigation displays. Whitcomb was having the exact same thoughts as the Spartan was having, "_Will it be enough?_" The Vice-Admiral may have had had some internal doubts, but he didn't show them to the bridge crew or in his tone as he relayed orders to the rest of the fleet.

The UNSC fleet was gathering into its battle groups. The majority of the fleet was on the other side of the planet from the Covenant's foothold, so they were masked from Covenant sensors by the planet. Another large battle group force led by the _UNSC Presidio_ was gathered behind the moon that orbited New Constantinople and using that body to hide their presence.

Whitcomb looked at his tablet for the latest Intel reports. The ground fighting was having the desired effect. The Covenant ships were either in orbit over the battle areas or had entered the planet's atmosphere to provide support to their ground troops. Whitcomb had seen the casualty reports from his feint attack and they were brutal, but he needed to sell the attack to the Covenant. If the Covenant was able to gather their ships together as one force it would raise havoc with the UNSC fleet. Whitcomb knew that they could defeat the Covenant fleet, but he also knew that the cost to the UNSC would be horrendous… the key was to separate and isolate the Covenant ships, so that the UNSC could get overwhelming local superiority to concentrate its firepower.

Whitcomb still had the Orbital Defense Platforms (ODPs) and the picket ships of the fleet making moves against the Covenant… He still had to make the Covenant disperse and split their forces, but he was hoping to gain tactical surprise when he brought in his fleet. He was hoping that the Covenant's Intel had underestimated the total number of ships that Whitcomb had at his disposal. Whitcomb had been careful husbanding his resources and concealing the true size of the fleet he had gathered in the system.

Fleet Intel had identified twenty-one Covenant ships in system and they were a mixed range of classes. The ones that worried the Vice-Admiral the most were the CCS-class battlecruisers. SIGINTEL and sensors had identified at least seven of the battlecruisers in system. The key would be to isolate those ships at the start of the battle and concentrate the fleet's firepower to take those ships out (best case scenario) or at least force them to withdraw.

The fleet battle plan was to use the super-heavy and heavy cruisers to engage the heavier Covenant ships first. The carriers would hold back to provide backup support with their MACs and send in Longsword fighters to support the heavies. The light cruisers, destroyers and frigates would hold off the smaller Covenant ships from supporting their heavies. The smaller ships would close-in and draw fire and try to suppress any Covenant gunboat strikes.

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb had one-hundred and twenty-two ships in his attack fleet not including fighters and even with his fleet obscenely outnumbering the Covenant ships, projected losses were estimated to run up to 50%. Whitcomb's plan to try and minimize his losses was to go in fast and force the Covenant back to clear the way for the designated ships to get over the designated orbital insertion points and drop the troops on the objectives.

Whitcomb swiped the screen on his tablet and he saw the confirmation that all the designated units involved with the assault had shuttled up to their respective UNSC ships. Whitcomb noted that Spartan Alpha Company and the ODST units would have the larger and more heavily defended targets to drop on, but that Spartan… Sierra-113… his ship would have the farthest gauntlet to run to get to its drop point.

Whitcomb closed his eyes and bowed his head for a moment as he said a quick prayer for everyone involved. If there was any other way of throwing back the Covenant invasion he would have taken it, but the Covenant held such a technological advantage in spaceships, energy weapons and shielding that the only thing that the UNSC could do was throw numbers at them and try and force ground battles to bleed the Covenant.

"_Will it be enough?_" Whitcomb thought again, "_It'll have to be…_" was his mind's response to the question.

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb turned to his chief of staff, "Commander Wright… Signal the fleet to commence the attack."

Commander Wright came to attention and saluted the Vice-Admiral, "Aye Aye Sir!"

* * *

The UNSC warships gathered behind New Constantinople and its moon received the attack order and moved out in their battle formations. The smaller warships formed up in front of the heavier warships to provide a protective screen. The carriers hung at the back to the battle formations and prepared to launch their fighters. The battle plan was to hit hard and fast with everything the UNSC had. If they could destroy all the Covenant warships that would be the best result, but at a minimum the fleet had to drive back the Covenant warships, so that those UNSC ships carrying the drop troops could get into position.

The Covenant detected the incoming human warships and they were at first confused. The feint attack had distracted the Covenant and caused them to hesitate as Vice-Admiral Whitcomb had intended. The Covenant knew that they had a technological advantage in space over the humans and thought that the humans would concentrate on giving battle on the planet surface as then the odds would tend to be somewhat more even between the Covenant and humans.

Those Covenant ships still in orbit turned to face the oncoming human ships. Communications were hurriedly sent out to the other Covenant ships that were further out in the system to come as fast as possible. Twelve Covenant ships in orbit turned to meet the human ships. Another four ships were moving at high speed for the planet to join up and lend their support. The Covenant scrambled to launch their Phantom gunships to help support and engage the human fleet. The five remaining Covenant ships were too low down to the planet's surface that they couldn't regain orbit in time to impact the battle immediately, but they tried to disengage to get back into orbit as they would be a distinct disadvantage if caught from above.

Even though the Covenant only had twelve ships to meet the initial human assault, seven of the ships were CCS-class battlecruisers. The fire power they could bring to bear would be tremendous. The remaining ships were a mix of SDV-class heavy corvettes and CPV-class heavy destroyers. Those smaller ships along with the Phantom gunboats moved to the front of the battlecruisers to provide a screen for the heavier Covenant ships. The Longswords swooped in to engage the gunboats and the battle commenced…

* * *

The human frigates and destroyers unleashed a barrage of MAC rounds from their main guns at the Covenant screening ships. The rounds left streaks of light flowing through space. Covenant shields flared from hits and the Covenant returned fire with their heavy plasma cannons and they added their own deathly colorful light to the surrounding space. Explosions rocked the UNSC ships as their armor tried to deflect the energy weapon hits. Ships took heavy damage, but those that could continue firing their main weapons did so and as those ships got closer they opened up with their Archer missile batteries. Autocannons mounted on the UNSC ships roared out a stream of fire to take out incoming Phantom gunboats as the gunboats and Longswords flew maneuvering against each other and also trying to avoid getting caught in the fire from the heavier ships. Some human ships exploded from direct hits or after taking too many hits and they suffered a breach in their engine rooms or weapon's magazine areas…

* * *

"Sir… We've lost our forward screen!" reported the first officer to Captain Henry Kwong on board the _UNSC Presidio_.

"Maintain course and keeping firing on those Battlecruisers!" order Captain Kwong as he viewed the battle out his bridge viewing area and on his video console. He saw the remains of his forward screen of destroyers and frigates. The ships were either destroyed or so heavily damaged that they were incapable of further movement or action and they drifted through space. This made the battle even more difficult as ships were not only trying to avoid fire, but floating hulks and other debris.

Captain Kwong could only watch grimly as the heavy ships in his battle group continued its advance without its protective screen. The only saving grace was that he had exchanged his screen for the Covenant's screening ships.

"Com… Contact the Carriers _Georgia_ and _Ontario_ and see if they have any Longswords left that they can launch to support us!" Captain Kwong ordered as his ship shuddered under him from a plasma cannon hit…

* * *

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb watched his display console and looked out his bridge viewing area to watch the battle he planned unfold as his flagship the _UNSC Vauban_, shuddered from a glancing blow. Whitcomb heard the Captain of the _Vauban_ call out for a damage report, but the Vice-Admiral had to disregard that as his responsibility was fighting the bigger battle and letting the Captain fight his ship.

Whitcomb watched status updates come in from the fleet, the _Presidio_'s battle group was taking a pounding, but it was also dishing out heavy damage to the Covenant ships. It was unfortunate, but the _Presidio_'s battle group force was facing off against five of the CCS-class battlecruisers. The vice-Admiral watched with grim satisfaction as his ships destroyed and pushed back the Covenant fleet. Whitcomb had detached some of his task force to deal with the Covenant ships coming up from the surface of New Constantinople.

The Vice-Admiral turned to his chief of staff, "What's the status of the drop?" he asked.

Commander Wright looked at his display status board, "ODST units started their drop two minutes ago… All got away and they appear to be on target… Alpha Company is dropping in T-minus one minute… Sierra-113 is still on route and is scheduled to drop in T-minus nine minutes…"

"Are we still providing cover for the _Before The Dawn_?" the Vice-Admiral asked with some concern.

"The Longsword squadrons are either heavily engaged, returned to their carriers to rearm and refuel or destroyed… We have the Marathon-class cruisers _Endeavor_ and _Harmony_ and the Halcyon-class light cruisers _Crimson Fire_ and _Forlorn Hope_ along with their screen still covering the frigate… They are taking fire from a CCS-class battecruiser and the Covenant ships coming up from the planet's surface…"

* * *

Commander Xander Reeves swore to himself as his ship the _UNSC Before The Dawn_ shuddered from a hit.

"Damage report!" Reeves ordered.

"Weapons control reports that we've lost our main gun… Estimate 45 minutes to bring back on-line..." replied the damage control officer.

"Engine status!" asked Commander Reeves.

"Engine room reports green… Sir!" was the reply back.

"Status of drop pod bay?" asked Reeves.

"Drop pod bay reports green… Our Spartan is all loaded and ready to go as soon as we enter the drop point area…" replied another crewman.

"Continue on course… Move us behind the _Endeavor_ for some cover... Can you kindly remind them that we need to get to the drop point in one piece…" Reeves replied.

* * *

The surviving Covenant ship commanders saw with shock and surprise as human ships launched a large number of orbital drop pods over the planet. They could only watch with helplessness as the drop pods screamed towards the surface of the planet and the areas that the Covenant had managed to occupy with great cost in troops and equipment. The Covenant ship commanders quickly noted that the drop pods were headed to areas that were supply depots, communication and command and control assets. They saw on their sensor display a group of ships headed towards the orbital area above one of their base installations. The surviving Covenant ships shifted to protect the space above that base. The Covenant was unaware that human intelligence had considered that base as a secondary command and control base, but it was in fact the primary communication and command center for Covenant forces on the planet. Covenant commanders contacted the remaining ships that were further out-system and ordered them to perform an emergency Slipspace jump to join the surviving ships to help defend the orbital space…

* * *

"Slipspace rupture detected!" screamed one of the sensor technicians on board the _UNSC Endeavor_.

Captain Desta Khumalo of the _UNSC Endeavor_ could only look in horror as four Slipspace ruptures appeared only 80 kilometers off her port side. Out of the Slipspace points appeared an ORS-class heavy cruiser, a RCS-class armored cruiser and two SDV-class heavy corvettes.

"Order the _Dawn_ to break formation and make a run for the drop point! All other ships engage and provide cover!" Captain Khumalo ordered quickly as she saw that she was suddenly badly outgunned.

* * *

Commander Reeves aboard the frigate _Before The Dawn_ also got a warning about the Slipspace openings and saw in horror as four Covenant ships appeared suddenly off the port side of the UNSC battle formation. He heard the communication from Captain Khumalo aboard the _Endeavor_ ordering him to break formation and make a run for it. Before Reeves had a chance to acknowledge the order, he saw all four Covenant ships open fire. They concentrated their fire on the _UNSC Endeavor_ and Commander Reeves could only watch in further shock and horror as the Marathon-class cruiser got ripped apart and blew-up in a huge explosion.

"COLLISION ALARM!" screamed Commander Reeves as debris from the _Endeavor_ hurtled towards his ship…

* * *

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb could only look on helplessly as the four Covenant ships tore into the battle formation escorting the _UNSC Before The Dawn_ towards its drop point.

"_Damn it! Damn the Covenant and their tech edge!_" Whitcomb swore to himself as he watched potential disaster unfold.

The Vice-Admiral turned to the communications officer, "Order the rest of our battle group to shift fire to engage those four new enemy ships! We got to cover that frigate to the drop point!" he said urgently. The Vice-Admiral heard the order go out and could see on his display console the remaining ships in his battle group shift to engage the new Covenant threat.

* * *

"Damage Report!" ordered Commander Reeves over the noise of alarms, people shouting across the bridge.

"Sir… We suffered multiple hits… Fires on decks 6…7 and 9. We have hull breaches on decks 10… 11 and 12… We're venting air… Weapons offline and Engine room reports damage… They report that they need to take the engines off-line or the reactors will breach!" reported the damage control officer.

"Status of the drop bay?" asked Commander Reeves.

"Still reporting green… Sir" replied the damage control officer.

Commander Reeves looked at his display console. For the moment the Covenant ships had redirected their fire at the other UNSC ships, but it was only a matter of time before they turned their plasma cannons on his ship to finish him off. Reeves grimly noted that one of the Covenant cruisers had taken position almost directly over the location where he was to release his drop pods. He knew the importance of this drop to the overall mission and he knew that he was faced with a hard choice…

Commander Reeves spoke in a calm quiet voice, "Helm… Full Speed ahead… Maintain course…"

The bridge of the frigate became deathly quiet except for the background sounds of the ship's alarms and other electronic noises.

"Inform the drop pod bay to be ready to release on my command…" Commander Reeves added.

The bridge crew turned back to their duties and the crewman at the helm answered back "Aye Aye Sir." as he laid in the frigate's course and approach vector.

* * *

The space around New Constantinople was a scene from hell as the battle continued. The few remaining Covenant ships gathered for a last stand and those UNSC ships still able to move and fight continued to advance and fire on the enemy. Among the streaks of MAC rounds being fired and the deadly flashes of plasma cannons returning fire was a lone frigate… heavily damaged and venting air continuing its run to its drop point…

* * *

In the drop pod bay, Michael was cocooned within his orbital drop pod waiting for the signal to drop. He heard a warning buzzer signaling that the frigate was thirty seconds from the drop pod release point. Michael focused himself to prepare for the drop. He wasn't a novice at orbital insertions, but each drop was unique and each had its own set of circumstances and "challenges".

Michael felt the ship shudder violently from another hit. He had tapped into the frigate's com system and he knew that the ship had been heavily damaged. Michael had no information on the status of any of the other orbital insertions or the units since they had been dropped. The battlenet for the fleet seemed like a disorganized mess of ships reporting heavy damage and casualties… calling for fire to be diverted at Covenant ships. Some voices were cut-off in mid-sentence indicating either loss of communication from the speaker as a result of being either wounded or killed or from the ship being destroyed. Only the experienced soldier could hear through the chaos to understand and interpret the situation.

* * *

Commander Reeves watched the sensor and display consoles as his ship continued its run to the drop point. The surviving UNSC ships continued firing and space was littered with debris and pieces of ships, both human and Covenant. His ship shuddered as the Covenant cruiser finally noticed the approaching frigate and shifted fire to engage the approaching human ship.

"Maintain course… Ready to drop…" Commander Reeves ordered his bridge crew.

* * *

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb watched from his flagship as he saw the frigate _Before The Dawn_ making its run. He could see the frigate venting air and trailing debris. He knew what the Commander of the frigate was planning.

"Concentrate fire on that cruiser!" ordered the Vice-Admiral in an attempt to try and provide some cover for the frigate's run.

* * *

Commander Reeves saw the Covenant heavy cruiser grow larger in his bridge observation window as they got closer. The heavy cruiser hadn't continued firing on his ship as the fire from the rest of the fleet had again distracted it. The Commander watched in professional fascination as he saw MAC rounds from the fleet slam into the cruiser's shields causing them to flare. Reeves saw a light on his display console turn green… they were finally in the drop zone.

"Execute Drop!" ordered Commander Reeves.

* * *

Michael heard another warning buzzer and saw a green light on his console and he had only a moment to prepare as his orbital drop pod shot like a rocket down through its launch tube…

The computer had been programed on the timing and order of the drop pod launch… Michael's pod was first followed by the ammo and supply pods and then last were the specially configured drop pods that were to land closer to the objective and provide a nasty surprise to the Covenant if they got to close to those pods…

Michael tried to relax and focus as he felt the excessive g-forces as his drop pod screamed through space towards the planet's surface.

* * *

"Sir… Last pod is away!" a crewman informed Commander Reeves.

Commander Reeves breathed an inner sigh of relief that he and his ship had completed their mission. At that moment the frigate was hit, it shook the ship so hard that it felt like something had picked up the ship and slammed it back down…

"Damage Report!" yelled Reeves as he regained his senses

"Multiple hull breaches! Fires spreading! Engine room is reporting that a reactor breach is in progress!" the damage control officer reported.

A thought passed through Commander Reeves's mind, "_I always wondered how it would end…_"

Commander Reeves looked calmly at his bridge crew and said quietly, "Helm… Aim us at that cruiser."

The crewman manning the helm station took a moment to realize what his Commander had ordered, but he didn't hesitate.

"Aye Aye Sir… Course set…" replied the helm.

"Ask the Engine room to red-line the engines… Let's see how fast we can go in…" Commander Reeves said again in a calm voice.

"Aye Sir." came the reply back.

The bridge was quiet as the ship shuddered and strained as her engines increased power to begin its death run.

* * *

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb could only watch his video display console as a flood of mixed emotions and thoughts flowed through him. He felt pride, sadness, guilt and satisfaction as he watched the frigate _UNSC Before The Dawn_ drive itself into the Covenant heavy cruiser causing both ships to blow up in a huge explosion taking out not only those two ship, but causing heavy damage to the nearby surviving Covenant ships.

As the explosion subsided and the surviving UNSC ships mopped up the remaining Covenant ships, eleven orbital drop pods streaked down towards the planet's surface…


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**"_Helljumper, helljumper, where you been? Feet first into hell then back again! When I die please bury me deep! Fix my MA5 down by my feet!_" — ODST Cadence.**

Michael rode down on an express elevator to hell. The orbital drop pod shook roughly as it re-entered the planet's atmosphere. Michael could see through the pod's view window, the heat from re-entry melt away the outer protective layer of the drop pod. Michael checked the pod's sensor displays and his suit sensors and everything was looking good so far. Michael had the IFF tags for the other pods showing up on his helmet display.

At 3000 feet, Michael's drop pod and the other drop pods automatically deployed their drag chutes to begin deceleration causing the pod to jerk hard as it immediately changed speed. The pods were moments away from landing.

"_This is where the fun begins…_" Michael thought as he could feel the drop pod slowing and stabilizing. Michael also saw white bursts of light coming from the ground… These were plasma gun turrets opening up on the incoming drop pods. The chances of being hit at this distance were small, but chance and luck had their own impact on the battlefield… This was quickly demonstrated when the IFF tag of one of the ammo drop pods went dark on Michael's helmet display.

"_Damn it! Well… Better the ammo pod than me…_" Michael thought as he focused and prepared for impact as the altimeter in the drop pod counted down the distance to landing. Michael could see his objective… the Covenant command and control center off in the distance… It was a fairly large sized structure with a two story base and a spire in the center that went up another 200-300 meters. Michael could see the shimmering energy shield that covered over the structure and it seemed to emanate from the top of the spire.

Michael was orienting himself to the Covenant base and the lay of the land that he had studied from his mission maps, when the drop pod's braking rockets fired and Michael could feel the pod slow down even more dramatically… The firing braking rockets meant that the pod was only 50 meters from landing. Michael felt the sudden jarring thump as the drop pod landed digging itself into the ground. It took only a few seconds for the onboard computer to register that the pod had landed and it automatically popped the pod door open and Michael leapt out into the battle…

* * *

Michael quickly moved from the drop pod and found cover behind some boulders nearby. Michael could see the IFF tags for the remaining drop pods surrounding the area. The surviving drop pods had all landed roughly in their targeted landing areas.

Michael did a quick check of his weapons. He was carrying his trusty MA5 assault rifle and had decided to carry a BR85 battle rifle as his secondary weapon for this battle. Michael had figured on this battle being a little more ranged "encounter" with the Covenant and the BR85 was his favorite weapon for reaching out and touching the enemy. Michael also had four standard fragmentation grenades with him and a standard demolition "blastpak" charge… this would be used to take out the communications center in the Covenant base.

Michael had packed extra ammo for his assault and battle rifle in the four surviving ammo drop pods along with extra grenades and blastpak demo charges. Michael had also placed a M19 rocket launcher with extra rockets in each pod to give him access to heavier firepower if he needed it… and it looked like he would need it. Michael used his enhanced vision and helmet optics to scope out the Covenant base and its defenses. He could see Grunts, Jackals, Elites and some Brutes swarming around and out of the base.

"_That's a lot of angry Covenant for this being just a lowly secondary command and control base…_" Michael thought as he assessed the base's defenses and planned his approach. He noted the positions of the plasma gun turrets and looked where he could move up using the cover of the land. There wasn't much in the way of tree cover as the area had already been scorched from earlier fighting when the Covenant first invaded, but there were low hills, rocks, boulders and piles of debris surrounding the base and Michael planned to use them to cover his approach.

Michael checked his motion sensors on his helmet display and could see red hostile targets moving towards him. By well-trained reflex, Michael rechecked his MA5 to make sure that it had a full clip.

"_Time to go…_" Michael thought and he made his move towards the base. As he moved he could see a large group of at least fifteen Grunts moving towards his position. Michael could see that a majority of the Grunts were waving plasma pistols, but there appeared to be a couple of Grunts carrying fuel rod launchers.

Michael quickly took cover behind some rocks and changed weapons grabbing his battle rifle attached to the magnetic hardpoint on his back and placed his assault rifle there. He used the scope on the battle rifle and zoomed in to target the first Grunt with a fuel rod launcher. He fired a quick three round burst and he could see the head of the Grunt explode and the body drop to the ground. This caught the attention of all the Grunts and they immediately started spreading out looking for cover. Michael quickly adjusted his aim and targeted the other Grunt with a fuel rod launcher with another burst. This burst caught the body of the Grunt. One bullet hit the Grunt's breathing tank and this ignited the methane gas, that the Grunt's breathed, and caused the tank to explode throwing the Grunt's body at least twelve feet into the air.

This caused the remaining Grunts to panic and Michael could only watch as the Grunts ran back towards the base. He took careful aim and proceeded to thin out the group of retreating Grunts. Michael didn't even give it a second thought as he shot the retreating Grunts in the back, when you are fighting to protect your race from a genocidal horde of aliens all thoughts of mercy and fair play tend to be left at the door…

Michael kept killing the retreating Grunts until he saw the ammo indicator on his helmet display reach zero. He quickly changed ammo clips and then switched back to his assault rifle. Michael moved forward again. He checked his motion sensors and he could see another swarm of red hostile targets approaching from his left side. To further announce their presence, Covenant carbine shots started hitting the ground and rocks around Michael. Michael used his Spartan reflexes and training and quickly dove for cover coming up and returning fire with a burst from his MA5.

Michael was determining the position of the shooters when he saw with his enhanced vision and helmet optics a group of Elites with Grunt support moving quickly towards one of the "specially configured" drop pods that had landed closer to the base. Michael saw other groups of Covenant troops moving up fast to the other four "special" drop pods. They appeared to be in a race to see which group would get to their drop pod first.

Michael had configured the five drop pods to land close to the Covenant base. He had loaded the drop pods full of explosives and had rigged up motion sensors to detect any hostile targets that approached within 10 meters of the pod and then detonate… He had basically turned the drop pods into huge claymore mines to shred anything within a 75 meter radius. Michael watched as the Covenant troops rushed in "to capture or kill" the drop pod's occupants.

"_They are about to get a nasty surprise…_" Michael thought as he flashed a predatory smile inside his helmet.

* * *

The Covenant troops rushing towards the drop pods that had landed close to their base didn't think much of the fact that no human soldiers had exited yet… The Covenant, especially the Sangheili (Elites) and Jiralhanae (Brutes), had always considered the humans as a weak and strange species and if they refused to accept battle and cower inside their craft… then all the easier to kill or better yet capture and extract information from.

The closet group of Covenant troops, that Michael saw, rushed towards the drop pod. The Sangheili warrior leading the group only thought of the glory he would achieve in battle by being the first to capture a human ahead of the other groups rushing towards the other four drop pods. The Sangheili grinned in anticipation as he got within 10 meters of the drop pod…

* * *

Michael ducked behind his cover as the first of the "special" drop pods exploded. This was quickly followed by the other four drop pods exploding as Covenant troops got within range and tripped the motion sensors…

The huge explosions ripped through the Covenant troops in the kill zone. Michael looked up from cover and noted with satisfaction as the "special" drop pods had killed or severely wounded at least 95 Covenant soldiers. The rest of the Covenant troops seemed to be temporarily stunned by the death and carnage caused by the explosions as their fire either slackened or fell off altogether.

Michael didn't hesitate and took advantage of the distraction and used his Spartan speed to sprint forward. He moved fast towards the Jackals that were pinning him with fire… They finally regained their focus, but it was too late and Michael was up close and shredded the group of three Jackals with a long burst from his MA5… Before the bodies of the Jackals had even hit the ground, Michael was moving again zigzagging towards the base.

* * *

It seemed like minutes but it was only a few seconds and the plasma turret gunners had recovered enough from witnessing their fellow Covenant soldiers' die that they started firing at the human soldier. The gunners had a hard time bringing fire to bear on the human target as he moved too fast and the human changed directions quickly.

The Sangheili major named Enkir 'Rolamee who commanded this base installation watched with frustration from the open platform on the second level as the Unggoy manning the plasma gun turrets vainly tried to hit the target. The Sangheili was trying to control his anger and frustration as he had watched nearly a third of his troops die when the drop pods they were rushing for exploded shredding their ranks.

"_It is one of those human demons that attacks us…_" the Sangheili major thought as he watched the human move from cover to cover avoiding plasma fire. Major 'Rolamee turned to his faithful and trusted aide, "Minor 'Crolunee… Take your troops and kill that human creature immediately!" barked the major.

"Yes Major… I will make it so!" replied the Sangheili as he turned to leave and gather his troops to fulfill his major's orders.

* * *

Michael was getting closer to the base and he had managed (so far) to dodge the plasma fire from the gun turrets on the second level of the Covenant base structure. Michael took a quick moment to view the structure and analyze the base. He could see that there appeared to be two entrance ramps to the base on a rough North-South axis… Michael was on the East side and would have to make it around to one of those sides. The bad news was that the last 75 meters surrounding the base was open ground with no cover whatsoever. If Michael couldn't get rid of the gun turrets they were sure to ruin his day when he moved into that open ground.

Michael's vision and helmet optics could see movement on the second level. It appeared that the Covenant was gathering another force to sortie out of the base to try and take him out. Michael switched to his battle rifle and used the scope to zoom in on one of the turret gunners… It was at extreme range, but Michael let loose with several bursts and noted with satisfaction as the gunner slumped in the turret seat. Michael could see other Grunts moving quickly at an Elite's orders to pull the body from the gunner's seat and quickly man the gun.

"_I'm going to need something heavier… Plus could use some extra ammo…_" Michael thought.

Michael quickly checked his HUD in his helmet for the IFF tag of the nearest ammo drop pod and he planned his approach… He was going to have to move at least 100 meters back from his current position and over to his left another 75 meters. Michael then saw Covenant troops swarm from both of the entrances of the base and moving towards his current position.

"_Seems like I finally managed to piss them off enough…_" Michael noted smirking as he saw the horde of Grunts, Brutes and Elites moving towards him.

Michael pulled a frag from his suit and armed it. With his Spartan strength he could throw the grenade farther than a normal human and he took advantage of that by calculating his toss to land in front of the approaching group… As he tossed the first grenade he quickly pulled a second frag, armed it and tossed it to roughly land at the same place as the first one. As soon as Michael had tossed the second grenade, he started his move towards the ammo drop pod. He heard two explosions in succession and noted with satisfaction as the red hostile targets on his motion sensors slow or stop and that there were less of them now…

* * *

"Curse you demon!" 'Rolamee howled out in his language as he watched two quick explosions tear into the front ranks of his attacking force causing them to stop and reorganize before continuing. The Unggoy had been the ones to suffer from the explosion, but that was what they were there for. The Unggoy were expendable and used to soak up the enemy's fire… no matter how many died.

The Sangheili major watched as the human demon moved away from the base, "Coward… Won't stand and fight and now moves away from us…" the major mumbled to himself, but then he noted that human was moving towards another drop pod. The major had assumed that the pod was rigged to explode like the other ones, but he watched as the human soldier opened the pod and quickly retrieved equipment.

"Concentrate your fire on that drop pod!" the Sangheili major yelled at his turret gunners as he realized that the pod was carrying equipment rather than death. The gunners quickly directed their fire on the drop pod, but the human had caught them by surprise and moved with great speed. The human demon had already gathered what it had needed and moved away from the pod.

'Rolamee at least had some satisfaction as the drop pod went up in a huge explosion from the belated plasma fire, but the human demon was still out there…

* * *

Michael had reached one of the ammo drop pods and had opened it and pulled out spare ammo, grenades and a rocket launcher before the Covenant could react. Michael moved quickly away from the drop pod as the Covenant started directing plasma fire in the pod and he had gained cover as the drop pod went up in a huge explosion showering him with debris, but no damage.

"Damn… that was close…" Michael murmured to himself.

Michael noted that along with the spare ammo and grenades, he had retrieved four spare rockets for the M19 rocket launcher. Two rockets were already loaded, so he felt he had enough to deal with the Covenant.

Michael easily hefted the rocket launcher to his shoulder and looked through the aiming reticle. He could see the plasma gunners reorienting their aim to his current position and he targeted the closest plasma gun turret and pulled the trigger…

Michael heard the rocket whoosh and felt the launcher shudder, but his strength minimized the recoil. He lowered the launcher slightly to watch the rocket streak towards its target. Again Michael had a sense of self-satisfaction as the rocket hit the Covenant gun turret dead on and it exploded blowing apart the gun emplacement… killing the Grunt gunner and several other Grunts that were standing beside the turret supporting it.

Michael saw his motion sensor display and that the Covenant troops rushing towards him were closer. Michael turned still holding the rocket launcher and made sure he had a clear field of fire…

"_Seems like overkill… But what the hell…_" Michael thought as he aimed at a huge Brute in the advancing force and anticipated where the Brute was going to be and fired a second rocket…

Michael quickly unshouldered the rocket launcher and grabbed two spare rockets and reloaded the launcher. He didn't see the second rocket explode, but he heard the explosion and saw on his motion sensor display that there were considerably fewer advancing Covenant.

Michael shouldered the reloaded rocket launcher and picked out another gun turret on the base and fired off another rocket…

* * *

The Sangheili major howled in rage as he saw the human soldier fire rockets at one of his defending gun turrets and then almost immediately fire a second rocket at his attacking troops. The explosion took out a couple of Jiralhanae warriors and most of the other troops except for a few Sangheili warriors.

The major was quickly trying to figure out how he was going to reorganize his defense forces when he saw a plume of smoke and realized with horror that he was standing next to a plasma gun turret and the rocket was coming towards the turret. For the Sangheili major, time seemed to slow down as he watched the rocket streak in and the Unggoy turret gunner was panicking and trying to get out of the gunner's seat. The major only had a moment to react and he dove away from the gun turret hoping he was out of the blast radius…

* * *

Michael saw the gun turret explode and fired off another rocket to take out another gun turret. As that turret was also destroyed he dropped the rocket launcher and picked up his battle rifle. He had blown a hole in a coverage area of the gun turrets so that he could approach the base now.

Michael could see that several Elites from the attacking group had survived and were getting very close. They were close enough that they had already started firing with their plasma rifles. Their shots weren't hitting him, but Michael's suit sensors could register the heat from the near misses…

Michael took aim and fired off several bursts from his battle rifle. Elites took quite a bit to take down and as Michael concentrated fire on one of the Elites, out of the corner of his eye he caught something coming towards him through the air… It was a glowing object.

"_Shit!_" Michael thought as he quickly realized what was coming and he jumped and dived out of the way of the incoming plasma grenade. He just managed avoided getting "stuck" by the grenade, but he got jarred by the explosion and showered by debris. Michael quickly turned to face the direction that the grenade came from and fired off a couple of bursts hitting an Elite in the head.

"Enough of this!" Michael muttered and switched back to his MA5. He did a quick check of his ammo counter and rushed towards the two remaining Elites. There was about 40 meters separating Michael from the Elites and he fired a long burst from his assault rifle. The Elites returned fire with their plasma rifles. Michael used his training and reflexes to dodge the plasma bursts. A couple of shots hit glancing blows off Michael's battle armor, but the reflective armor surface diminished their power and there was no serious damage other than burnt scorched marks where the plasma shots hit. As Michael continued his rush, he took a quick glance at the ammo counter on the MA5 and saw it winding down fast as he concentrated his fire at one of the Elites. In a quick swift motion he pulled a frag grenade, armed it and tossed it at the Elites. Michael dove for cover and as he recovered he also reloaded a fresh ammo clip into his MA5. As that was occurring the frag grenade went off throwing the two Elites to the ground seriously wounded. Michael came out of cover and moved forward towards the base structure. As he passed the two injured Elites that were struggling on the ground, without even really pausing or giving it a second thought, Michael fired a quick burst from his MA5 into the heads of each Elite finishing them off. Michael continued on his way towards the closest entrance ramp to the base…

* * *

Michael reached one of the entrance ramps of the base. He paused and did a quick check of his motion sensors. There were still a lot of red hostile targets moving around, but his audio sensors had picked up the panicked voices of Grunts. Michael got a little smirk on his face as he picked up the panicking Grunts screaming. "The demon is here!"

Michael checked his MA5 and changed clips again to make sure he had a fresh clip to enter the base. He did a quick count and he had three spare clips for his MA5, plus he still had the battle rifle with a full loadout along with three frag grenades.

Michael visualized the layout of the Covenant base in his mind. The UNSC had been at war long enough with the Covenant to have a rather good idea how Covenant base structures were laid out. The first two levels would be equipment, storage and power areas. The communication and shield control areas, which were Michael's targets, would be located at the top of the control spire. To access those areas, Michael would have to make his way to the second level and then ride up a gravity lift to the center of the spire platform. Michael took a deep breath to relax and focus himself and he moved up the ramp into the base…

As Michael moved through the base he encountered light resistance. Most of the Grunts were panicking and those that did stand to fight were quickly dealt with. Michael did encounter a few hardcore Grunt defenders who charged at him holding live plasma grenades. He quickly dispatched those "suicide bombers" without suffering any damage.

Michael finally reached the gravity lift platform located at the center of the base on the second level. Michael checked his motion sensors and they appeared clear for now.

Michael looked up at the streaming light of the gravity lift flowing up to the spire, "_Who Dares Wins…_" he thought and he stepped into the light flow of the gravity lift. Michael suddenly felt himself lift off the ground and fly up the stream of light towards the top of the spire. It only took a few seconds to go from the ground to the top of the spire and Michael kept one eye on his motion sensors and he started to get some red hostile targets appearing.

Michael reached the top of the spire and the gravity lift propelled him onto the platform and into a group of Grunts…

* * *

As Michael exited the gravity lift he startled the Grunts. There were at least a dozen Grunts, but he didn't hesitate as his reflexes and training took over and he held down the trigger on his MA5 and sprayed the gravity lift area with bullets either killing the Grunts or causing them to scream and run in confusion. Michael didn't stand in one place and quickly moved through the area maintaining his fire… only a couple of Grunts managed to escape the gravity lift area. Michael took a moment to change clips and exited the room. Michael kept an eye on his motion sensors.

"_I'm close… I would hate to blow it now after getting this far…"_ Michael thought to maintain his focus and concentration.

* * *

The Sangheili major Enkir 'Rolamee was on the spire platform. After barely escaping the rocket taking out the gun turret next to where he had been standing, he had reasoned out that this human demon was going to head toward the shield control and communications areas of the base and he decided to wait for this… _Spartan…_ to come to him and he would then get his revenge.

'Rolamee had watched and monitored as the human entered his base and decimated his troops. The Sangheili's anger rose at the thought of a single human killing all his troops and destroying this important base. The Sangheili waited in the communications area as again he reasoned this would be the human's primary target. He heard the sound of human weapon's fire and the yelling and screams of his last remaining Unggoy soldiers.

"_The demon will be here soon… and I will have my revenge…_" 'Rolamee thought angrily as he engaged his active camouflage system making himself invisible. The Sangheili gripped tightly the hilt of his plasma sword and his finger caressed the activation button as he waited in anticipation of activating the sword and plunging into the Spartan's body…

* * *

Michael moved carefully around the spire platform. He was tracking down the last Covenant defenders, but something was bothering him. A thought nagged at the back of his mind, "_I thought I had three red hostile targets on my motion sensors and now there are only two…_"

Michael tracked down the last two Grunts and quickly killed them as they fired at him with their plasma guns in a futile attempt to stop the Spartan. Michael took a few more glancing shots off his armor, but again the reflective coating on his battle armor provided more than enough protection. Michael made his way to the communications room to plant the blastpak charge he was carrying to destroy the equipment in there.

Michael reached the door to the communications room. Michael paused and he saw no threats on his motion sensors. He listened and didn't pick up anything on his audio sensors, but something was still bothering him.

"_Something doesn't feel right…_" Michael thought as he tried to focus and control this feeling that was starting to scream in the back of his mind. Michael finally decided he had to move and he moved into the doorway of the communications room. He turned each way swinging his MA5 in each direction to deal with any potential threat, but there was nothing… except for the background hum of the equipment operating.

Michael moved into the room slowly with every one of his senses running in overdrive. He moved into the center of the room and got closer to the main communications control panel located opposite of the entrance…

* * *

"_Come closer demon… Soon your time will end..._" thought 'Rolamee in blood thirsty anticipation of killing this human demon. He started to move from the side wall on the right hand side of the human and to sweep around and come up behind this demon…

* * *

As Michael got further into the room and closer to the communications panel, he noticed a funny signal on his motion sensors, "_There! Something on my motion sensors… Not a solid contact… Something very close… Almost like an echo… something familiar about it… almost like there was a ghost in here… SHIT!_" Michael thought and his eyes widened as he finally realized what was happening and he reacted…

* * *

The Sangheili major swooped in behind his human prey and activated his plasma sword. The plasma sword made its eerie electric crackling sound as the plasma energized into its deadly form. The major had a predatory smile on his face when he swung his plasma sword in at the human demon… He had anticipated at slicing the human in half, but the smile on the major's face turned to shock as this human demon reacted with blinding speed when he turned and stepped into the major's killing blow and used his weapon to deflect the major's arm…

The Sangheili major tried to recover and had a brief thought as he saw the human's weapon fly across the communications room from deflecting his plasma sword blow, "_The demon is defenseless now… Time to fin…_" but the major never had a chance to finish the thought as the human had spun his body in an impossible blinding fast move and at the same time had drawn a knife from a scabbard on his left shoulder… The move finished with the human demon driving the knife into the side of the Sangheili major's head killing him instantly.

* * *

Michael pulled his combat knife out of the Elite's head once he was sure the creature was dead and the body fell to the floor with a heavy thud. Michael had reacted on pure instinct and adrenaline and it was only luck and his Spartan reflexes that allowed him to survive this close encounter with this Elite. Michael was still keyed up and he quickly turned in a circle in the communications room in case there were anymore "ghosts".

Once he realized that this was the last base defender, he was able to let his breath out and he put his combat knife back into his shoulder scabbard.

"_Damn… Lucky on that one…_" Michael thought as he breathed a sigh of relief. Michael quickly retrieved his MA5 and planted his blastpak charge on the main communications panel. He set it for a 45 second delay and he quickly exited the room once he activated the timer. Michael made his way over to the shield control room and had just entered that room when he heard the explosion and felt the spire shake and shudder from the explosion. Michael walked over to the main control panel and deactivated the base's shield.

He looked out the room's window and could see the energy shield shimmer and then lose its integrity as it was deactivated. In a few seconds the shield around the base was down. Michael turned and headed to exit the shield control room. When he got to the entrance, he pulled two of his frag grenades, armed them and tossed them towards the main shield control panel. Michael ducked around the corner and quickly heard two satisfying explosions causing the spire to slightly shudder.

With the base secured and communications and shield down, Michael opened a communications channel to report on his mission status, "Command… This is Sierra-113… SITREP… Objective is neutralized… I repeat the objective is neutralized…"

Michael had to wait a long moment and then he heard static back on his communications channel, "Sierra-113… This is command… Confirmed objective achieved… We have three inbound Pelicans carrying Marines to reinforce and secure the area… ETA… 32 minutes…"

"Roger that command… Will hold on-site until reinforcements arrive… I will mark LZ with orange smoke… Repeat orange smoke… Copy that command?" Michael replied back.

"Copy that Sierra-113… Confirm orange smoke…" replied the voice on the other end of the communications channel. There was a pause and the voice spoke again, "Sierra-113…Excellent work."

"Thanks command… Sierra-113 out…" Michael replied as he moved to head back down to the ground level to maintain security over his newly won objective and wait for the Marine reinforcements to fly in.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**_UNSC Firebase Mitchell – New Constantinople – August 11, 2536 – 0530 Local Time_**

_The dream was disturbing… Covenant ships filled the sky and they were firing their plasma guns making the sky seem to catch on fire… People were crying and screaming and Michael could only watch helplessly filled with rage… He heard a voice taunting him… "Who are you?" Michael turned and he was greeted with the sight of the body of Kevin Anders hanging from a tree… The eyes of the man that Michael had "interrogated" bore right into his soul and the man asked again "Who are you?" which was strange as Anders shouldn't have been able to speak with his throat cut… Michael could only stand frozen as he watched the Covenant devastate everything and burn the world around him… Michael could see the flames coming closer and he could feel the heat from the flames and Michael looked and he no longer had his armor on… Michael could see the skin on his arms start to blister and burn and the pain grew…_

Michael awoke with a start and sat up in his bunk. Michael rubbed his face with his hand. He could feel the sweat covering his face and body. Michael turned and sat on the edge of his bunk.

"_No point trying to go back to sleep… Was going to get up in 30 minutes anyways…_" Michael thought somewhat glumly.

Michael had been back at the firebase for two weeks now. After he had secured the Covenant Command base, he had waited for the reinforcements to arrive via Pelican. They had arrived just in time to beat off a major Covenant counter-attack. They had then spent the next two days beating off continued Covenant attacks, the Covenant had managed to prevent further UNSC reinforcements from flying in during that time and the fighting had been hard and bloody… especially the last day as the Covenant were getting more desperate to retake their base. That last day the fighting had degenerated into hand to hand combat as the human forces were running out of ammo and were forced to scrounge Covenant weapons and ammo to continue fighting. Michael had fought like a madman using a Covenant plasma sword to beat back the last attacking waves. The human forces had finally broken the Covenant's will and were able to bring in further reinforcements.

Michael had heard that the Spartan III Alpha Company had secured their objective with minor injuries. The ODST units dropped were ultimately able to secure their objectives, but they had suffered heavy casualties in doing so. Now that UNSC forces had regained space superiority and had removed the Covenant Command & Control and supply bases it was only a matter of time before the Covenant foothold on New Constantinople was eliminated…

* * *

Even with the Covenant command and supply infrastructure in disarray, this seemed to only make the remaining Covenant forces fight even harder and with more desperation… especially the Elites and Brutes. Heavy fighting raged within and around the Covenant's foothold on the planet. Michael had spent the next three weeks being shuttled from one hot spot to another to provide support in the desperate fighting. During this time, Michael had felt that he was where he needed to be and doing what he was meant for… at least that was what he told himself.

In the third week, the fighting reached more desperate and vicious levels as the Covenant had managed to scrap together a large attack force supported by their remaining Wraiths and Banshees and attacked a point on the perimeter. Where the Covenant was going to breakout to was unknown… maybe they knew that they were doomed and just wanted to kill as many humans as possible. For the Elites there was no thought of surrender… only the glorious honor that came from battle with a hated enemy.

Michael had arrived on a Pelican with Marine reinforcements as the Covenant attack hit the perimeter. Michael knew that this fight was going to be a violent affair at level he hadn't experienced before… the Pelican he had arrived on blew up from a direct plasma hit just moments after he and the Marines he came in with had exited. Michael was immediately engaged in battle as waves of Grunts threw themselves at the human defense lines. Most of the Grunts came in as suicide bombers carrying plasma grenades detonating themselves if they had managed to survive the intense (and highly motivated) human defensive fire. Casualties among both human and Covenant forces were horrendous. Michael was at the center of the battle moving from one sector of the defense line to another sector when it was threatened with being overrun by Covenant forces. The sky was filled with the arching red plasma bolts from Wraiths… Banshees howled through the sky as they added their shots to the plasma created hell… The UNSC replied back with artillery strikes and Scorpion tanks firing rounds back… Missiles filled the sky seeking out targets.

Michael had been swallowed up in the fighting… There was no time to think only to move and fire at whatever Covenant target appeared, then quickly reload and fire again and then move again. Those Marines that survived the battle would later tell stories about how a Spartan would appear seemingly out of nowhere and beat back a Covenant attack and then disappear. The whole battle took on a nightmarish scene from hell as streaks of light came screaming through the atmosphere as UNSC ships in orbit joined in and fired MAC rounds behind the battle lines to take out and disrupt the follow up waves of Covenant troops moving towards the battle.

The Covenant made one final frantic push with what troops and equipment they had left and they were met by the desperate defense of the human defenders. Michael moved like a god across the battle field firing and engaging the most dangerous targets… He took on Elites, Brutes and Hunters… They all tried to kill Michael and each time he survived while they died. Michael's blood and soul screamed and embraced the death and destruction that surrounded him. He was caught up in the whirlwind… no one could stand against him… that was almost his undoing.

Michael never saw the Banshee that was screaming through the air towards him when it got hit by a human missile on its starboard wing causing its Elite pilot to lose control of his ship and have it start spinning towards the ground. It was only by luck and Michael's instincts that at the very last moment that he saw the fatally damaged Banshee spinning towards him. He started to dive out of the way when the Banshee hit the ground going off in a huge explosion. The blast and shock wave tossed Michael like a ragdoll throwing him hard into the side of the burnt out remains of a destroyed Wraith. If it had been a normal human they would have been crushed, but between Michael's armor and augmentation he was able to survive. Michael lay stunned on the ground for a few moments and he moved slowly making sure that his arms and legs responded. Michael got up groggily and tried to focus, but his vision was blurred and his helmet display showed yellow and red damage warnings to his armor systems. Michael staggered back to the human defense lines. He still had enough sense to avoid the heavy fighting as he realized that his fighting ability was impaired. Michael finally made it to a defense position where he added his fire to the Marines hold up there. The Marines were unexpectedly happy to have a Spartan (even an injured one) in their position adding his support.

After what seemed like hours, the battle finally petered out as those few remaining Covenant survivors retreated to hold up and continue their fight for another day. The Marines along the defense line were suddenly met by the silence that descended along the battlefield and it was almost like a simultaneous sigh of relief was exhaled by those surviving human defenders as they realized that the battle was over. A lot of the Marines collapsed in exhaustion in their defensive positions, but orders were quickly given for patrols to be sent out to patrol and police the battlefield in case the Covenant made any other breakout attempts.

Michael was in his defensive position when he was struck by the silence and absence of weapons fire… He couldn't even begin to describe what he was feeling. He had been filled with this tremendous emotional feeling and now there was nothing… Michael tried to stand up, but he suddenly didn't have any strength in his legs… His blurry vision got worse and his head ached in pain.

The Marines in the defensive position were shocked as they saw the Spartan try to stand up and then collapsed. It took them a long moment to shake off their shock and finally medics and a heavy-lift team were called in to help the fallen Spartan…

* * *

Michael had then spent three days in a medical bay under observation. He was diagnosed with having suffered an extreme concussion from the effects of the Banshee explosion. Michael balked at having to stay so long in the medical bay, but finally sighed and gave up as orders came down directly from Vice-Admiral Whitcomb ordering Michael "to rest and co-operate with the medical staff".

Michael was getting agitated by the third day when the medical staff finally gave him a clean bill of health. Michael was still having minor headaches and his vision was slightly blurred, but he didn't mention that to the medical staff.

Michael returned to the firebase and was expecting to receive immediate orders to deploy back into the battle, but he just received orders to stand by. During this time Michael reviewed the battle records from his orbital insertion and caught up on the latest battle reports.

The Covenant perimeter on New Constantinople was being reduced. There was still fighting going on, but the intensity was not as fierce as the earlier fighting. The projections were that the fighting would continue for another ten to fourteen days before the Covenant forces completely collapsed and were eliminated… there was no talk of offering terms for surrender.

The UNSC was trumpeting the success of Vice-Admiral Whitcomb's plan against the Covenant on all the planetary news feeds. The news reports that the civilians saw spoke of the tremendous sacrifice by the men and women of the UNSC armed forces, but didn't tell of what the actual cost had been. Michael was able to see the casualty lists and they were horrendous. The Navy had lost nearly forty-five percent of their ships in battle with the Covenant ships in orbit around New Constantinople. The UNSC was quickly sending reinforcements to rebuild the fleet in the system and Vice-Admiral Whitcomb was working his forces like a task master to quickly repair damaged ships and at the same time rebuild the damaged planetary defense network. While others celebrated the demise of the Covenant forces on the planet, Whitcomb worked like a madman as he expected the Covenant to return.

* * *

Michael had spent the first week at the firebase trying to relax, but he found himself anxious and reacting to any sudden noise or movement. By the end of the week, Michael's vision was returning to normal, his headaches were going away and he was able to sleep somewhat normally at night… at least until he got a video call… the call came from ONI.

The high ranking ONI officer on the video call had informed Michael that they had reviewed all the intel that he had provided them from his interrogation of Kevin Anders and they had been following up on the off-planet leads with success. What the ONI officer wanted to know was why Michael had not been following up on the other leads on the other separatist cells on the planet.

Michael had to explain slowly and carefully that he had been somewhat busy helping to defend the planet from a Covenant invasion and had not been able to follow up on any further leads. Michael tried to hide his revulsion and disgust as the ONI officer dismissed Michael's explanation and ordered Michael to follow up immediately or as the ONI officer had put it… "You're a Spartan and you know your duty and allegiance to the UNSC… So do what we've made you to do!"

Michael had responded with a crisp salute and the obligatory "Yes Sir!" as the video call ended. Michael's nightmares started again that night…

* * *

Michael got out of his bunk and went to his bathroom. Michael stood bent over the sink with his hands holding on each side. He reached and turned a tap on and ran his hands under the cool water and then splashed some water on his face. He looked up and he saw himself in the bathroom mirror… Michael took a hard long look at himself in the mirror.

"Who am I…? What am I…?" Michael said out loud as he looked at himself in the mirror. As Michael tried to come to grips with his ONI order, he had flashing images of the previous battle against the Covenant… As the images of battle replayed through his mind, he could feel his heart start to beat faster and his pulse quicken… He had felt so alive and filled with purpose on the battlefield.

"_That is where you belong…_" a thought raced through Michael's mind, but a deep inner voice replied back, "_No… You haven't found where you belong… yet_".

Michael turned and left the bathroom turning off the light and trying to figure out where that thought had come from…

* * *

Michael dressed and had breakfast. Afterwards he went to the firebase's operations building and sat down a secure computer terminal. Michael brought up all the information he had gathered from his "talk" with Anders.

Michael reviewed the information he gathered from Anders and he cross-referenced it with what information ONI had provided him about the Innies before he had deployed to New Constantinople. Michael looked at the information and he had some good solid leads that would require follow up, but he wanted to make sure about the information before he went out into the field. He knew sub-consciously that he was dragging his feet as he detested the thought of having to do any further field interrogations against more humans.

Michael sighed as he realized when he was fighting the Covenant in open battle it was all so much more "simpler and cleaner" than dealing with the ugliness of an insurgency and the tactics that were called for.

Michael shook his head to refocus his attention and got a smirk on his face as he thought of how CPO Mendez would have responded to all these thoughts (and doubts) that Michael was having.

Michael could almost hear Mendez yelling, "_Get your head out of your ass and do your duty… Spartan!_"

The smirk grew into a smile as Michael recalled with fondness those memories of those early years. Michael sighed as he wished that he had someone like Mendez… Halsey or even Dr. Reeves to talk to right now and share what he was feeling…

"_Maybe John has the right idea… Maybe it is better to just disconnect yourself from the world around you… It might make it easier to focus and concentrate on what I need to do._" Michael thought as he recalled how his brother Spartan seemed to deal with things.

Michael turned his attention back to the computer terminal. He knew he would have to go out again… It didn't matter what he felt… He had his orders and his duty to perform. A fleeting thought quickly passed through Michael's mind as he thought that maybe he could go to Whitcomb and ask the Vice-Admiral to find another mission for him to do, but Michael quickly shot down that idea as that is not what a Spartan did… Michael had his marching orders and it was time to march.

There was info on a couple of leads to separatist cells on the planet. One lead was in the small town of Brusa located in the southern hemisphere of the planet. It appeared that most of the separatist support on New Constantinople was located in the smaller towns and outlying areas… away for the prying eyes of UNSC and ONI surveillance.

Info that Michael had obtained from Anders pointed to a man named Barton Jackson located in that town. Michael checked the planetary database and called up all the info that he could find on this Jackson. It appeared that this Jackson character had a somewhat shady and colorful record. Even though the information pointed to Jackson residing in Brusa there appeared to be no fixed address of where he lived… the only lead was a listing for a known associate of Jackson's. Michael was able to locate an address for that person in Brusa.

Michael sighed as he could start to see how this was going to play out and it looked like it was going to get very messy, but ONI didn't seem to care about the cost… they only cared about the results. Michael would need to "talk" to Jackson's associate first to find Jackson. Then Michael would have to locate Jackson and then have another friendly chat with Jackson himself. From Ander's info this Jackson fellow acted as a courier and liaison between some of the different Innie cells… He would be a good source of information to locate and track down the cells. Once the cells had been identified and located, Michael could then go in and find their leadership and then "remove" them.

Michael committed all the necessary information to memory and he then closed the data file and opened a secure communications channel to the firebase's operations officer.

The operations officer answered the com request and opened the video link, "Captain Moren here…" responded the officer.

"Captain… This is Sierra-113… I need to requisition a Pelican and her crew for a mission… Destination is on a need to know basis only…" replied Michael using his calm neutral tone.

Michael saw the Captain's eyebrows slightly arch at this request. "Understood Sierra-113… I will need your authorization code and security clearance to confirm." replied the operations officer.

"Understood Captain…" Michael replied as he typed in the authorization code and his security clearance code into the terminal for the officer. Michael had to suppress a smirk as he saw the operations officer's eyes widen at seeing the ONI clearance code granting Michael access to any resources and equipment he needed.

"Yes...Yes Sir! I can have a Pelican available and ready. When do you need the Pelican and her crew ready for?" replied the Captain trying and failing to hide the nervousness in his voice.

Michael again had to suppress a smirk as the operations officer actually outranked Michael, but Michael didn't have the time to explain the ranking situation.

"I'll need the ship and crew ready to go tomorrow…" Michael replied and paused as he did some quick calculations as to how long it would take the dropship to fly from the firebase to Brusa. Michael needed to work in the dark and the flight would take at least six hours.

"Let the crew know that we'll go wheels up at 1530 hours." Michael said as he finished his calculations and started to put together his operational plan for this mission in his mind.

"Yes Sir!" again replied the operations officer. The Captain seemed to hesitate and then spoke again with the nervousness still in his voice as he knew that asking too many questions about ONI missions could have a negative impact on your career and potentially on your health and well-being, "Sir… if you don't mind me inquiring. How long will you be requiring the Pelican and her crew?"

Michael took a moment and gave it some thought. There were a lot of variables at work on this mission and some unknowns that could have an impact. "_Better play it on the safe side…_" Michael thought.

"Tell the crew to pack for a three day mission… just in case. They'll be living in the Pelican while on station." replied Michael feeling that would give him enough time to track down Barton Jackson.

"Understood Sir! Will you need anything else?" replied the operations officer.

"No Captain… That will be all… Thank you." Michael replied and then terminated the video call.

Michael brought up maps and the layout of Brusa. He had the address of Jackson's associate and he quickly planned his LZ and approach into the town… The address of the associate was located in the central area of the town which presented problems on how Michael would approach and stay hidden and unseen by the civilian population.

It took several hours, but Michael had worked out his approach route along with an alternate route and had his fallback route planned in case things went south and he needed to make a quick exit. Michael committed everything to memory and downloaded the navigation details to an encrypted storage drive that he would use to transfer the data to the navigation system in his battle armor.

Michael looked outside and could see that it was late afternoon from the position of the sun. He turned and saw a clock on the wall above the office door and it said it was 1715 hours. Michael stretched and realized that he hadn't eaten since breakfast. Michael decided that he would grab a quick meal and then do an equipment check to get everything ready for tomorrow and then grab some sleep.

At the thought of sleep, the nightmarish images from Michael's dreams flashed through his mind and he sighed to himself…


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the delay in posting as I have been busy with work and I found that this was a difficult chapter to write. Enjoy and feel free to leave your comments. I'll try not to be as long with Chapter 11. - Thanks PJ

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**_LZ designated Alpha-One - 10 kilometers North of Brusa – New Constantinople – August 12, 2536 – 2205 Local Time_**

Michael looked back from the tree line at the Pelican sitting on the ground of the clearing. They had landed just over twenty minutes before and Michael had done a perimeter walk 200m out from the LZ to make sure it was clear. So far it looked clear. The Pelican crew was to remain with the dropship… If anyone did stumble on their position the crew was to use the cover story that they were currently deployed on training maneuvers.

Michael checked his NAV system on his helmet display and set his NAV point. The sun was in its final stages of setting and the sky shone the final light of dusk. Michael estimated that it would be dark enough by the time he reached the town's outskirts that he wouldn't be seen. There would possibly be still a large civilian presence on the streets moving about at that time. Michael had plotted a route to avoid (hopefully) the more heavily trafficked areas… Michael would have to make use of his speed and stay in the shadows as he moved through the town to his objective.

Michael did one last radio check with the Pelican. After that he would be running dark. Radio silence would only be broken by either Michael or the Pelican crew in the event of an emergency which would mean that things had gone really bad. Michael shook his head slightly and had a frustrated smirk on his face at the irony of the situation and thought, "_I have to take higher security precautions running missions against my own species than against the Covenant…_" It just seemed so wrong to Michael and his doubts started to rise to the surface, but he quickly pushed them back down and buried them (or at least tried to) as he knew he couldn't afford to be distracted by any thoughts other than the mission. That's all that mattered right now… The mission…

Michael moved at a slower pace than he would have normally gone. The slowness may have been caused by his subconscious and the hesitation and doubts he was trying to suppress. Michael chalked up his slow pace to making sure that he didn't get spotted. He kept an eye on his motion tracker just to make sure that he didn't stumble into any unwary civilian.

Michael reached the outskirts of Brusa. Due to his slow pace, it had gotten later and it was much darker out now. Michael used his optics to check his approach route. There were currently civilians moving about, but the crowds were thinning out as it was getting later. Michael stayed under cover until the civilian traffic thinned out more and he moved towards his destination making sure that he moved quietly staying in the shadows.

* * *

Arden Muyser had returned to his rundown walk-up apartment from another night of doing the same thing… drinking at the local bar. Muyser staggered through the rundown ill-kept apartment to collapse on his bed in the bedroom. He did the same thing every night and he knew his way through his apartment with his eyes closed that he didn't even bother turning on the lights or looking around. He just managed to take off his coat and kick off his shoes before he fell on the bed.

It was only what seemed like seconds until Arden closed his eyes and he started to drift off into an alcoholic induced sleep. Muyser felt like he had been asleep for hours when he suddenly felt something clamp on to his face startling him enough to open his eyes to find out what was happing. Arden woke up to a nightmare as he saw an armored gloved hand placed across his mouth and he saw a helmet with a gold visor that only reflected the image of his terrified face back to him.

Arden tried to lift his head out of pure instinct, but the hand clamped over his mouth was strong and pinned his head in place. Panic started to seize Arden's mind and he was about to start thrashing when he felt something pointy and sharp against his throat. Arden's eyes opened wider in fear and his next thought was to start trying to yell even though his mouth was covered over. Arden's fear was taking over his body and he could feel that he was about to lose control over his bowels when the gold visor helmeted being said in a soft and quiet tone, "Shhhhh…"

Arden froze in fear not knowing what to do or what to expect next…

* * *

Michael had arrived at the target's address, but after a quick check of the apartment using his helmet's thermal optics he had found that his target was not there. Michael didn't have a lot of options, so he found a nice quiet out of the way spot that he could keep watch on the target's apartment and he waited to see what turned up.

As it got later and the target still hadn't shown up, Michael could feel his frustrations grow. He really didn't want to have to leave empty handed and have to come back again tomorrow night. The more he moved around the town, the more that the chance of accidental discovery increased.

Michael was figuring out his next moves and using his motion scanners to plan his exit route when a target appeared on his motion scanner display. Michael turned his head and used his augmented eye sight and helmet optics to acquire the approaching person. It was dark, but with Michael's helmet optics and augmented eye sight he could see everything clear as day. The approaching person was a male and Michael got a clear look of the approaching man's face… It was the target he had been waiting for!

Michael could observe the approaching target and he could easily see that the man was intoxicated from how he slightly stumbled and staggered as he was walking on the sidewalk. Michael had a quick thought about snatching the target on the street, but it was too open and the chance of being seen was too great, plus dealing with a drunk person raised too many risks of the situation getting out of control quickly… no… Michael would wait until the target was in his apartment and then enter. He would have more control over the situation and the target.

* * *

Michael looked down at his target as the man looked up from the bed with his eyes wide filled with shock and terror. Michael smirked inwardly slightly as he could only imagine how he must appear to his target who was sleepy and drunk, but the smirk quickly disappeared as the reason for his being here reasserted itself.

Michael had placed his left hand over the man's mouth to keep him from making any noise and had drawn his combat knife in his right hand and had the tip of the knife pressed up against the man's throat.

After telling his target to stay quiet, Michael spoke in a low voice to the man, "Remain quiet… I'm going to ask you a few questions… Nod if you understand?"

Michael watched as the terrified man nodded slowly to show that he understood. Michael slowly removed his hand from the man's mouth, but kept his combat knife close to the man's throat to reaffirm the seriousness of the situation and make sure that the man did not try and do something stupid.

"Okay… You name is Arden Muyser?" Michael asked again in his low voice.

The terrified man managed to croak out a response through his horse dry throat, "Yesss…"

"You know Barton Jackson?" Michael asked.

Michael could see the man's eye widen slightly at that question and at first he hesitated. Michael pushed the tip of his knife closer into the man's throat to show that he wasn't in a mood for playing games. For a moment it looked like the man was going to shake his head to respond negatively, but he stopped as he realized his natural response wasn't going to be the best response for himself in this situation.

"Yea… I know him…" the man's voice cracked slightly as he nodded slowly very aware of the knife being held against his throat.

"Where can I find him?" Michael quickly asked with his follow up question.

"He… He moves around a lot… Doesn't stay in the same place very long…" the man replied.

"Where is he? Don't make me ask again…" Michael said with his voice taking on a more menacing tone.

"Honest… I… I don't know where he is right now…. He… He has a woman here in town…. He stays with her one… two days a week… Please… I'm telling you everything I know… If Jackson wants something from me he contacts me… I don't contact him… Please don't hurt me…" the man said in a pleading begging tone as his will to resist crumbled from the fear of the situation he was caught in.

"I want a name and address for this woman?" Michael said again in his low menacing tone.

Michael could see in the man's eyes as he battled with his inner turmoil of betraying someone he knew with saving his own skin. Michael again pushed his knife close to the man's throat to make sure that the scales stayed on the side of self-preservation and the man would remain talkative.

"Name… Address… Now!" Michael said using a tone that this was not a question to be repeated or further discussion tolerated.

The man spoke quickly again in an almost panicked voice, "Okay… Okay… Her name is Susan Currie… She lives on the north-side of town… Small house… Her address is…"

Michael noted the address location of the woman as the man babbled out the information. He could see the man's eyes wide from fear and he could tell that the man wasn't lying. The information the man had provided gave him a slim lead to follow up on Jackson. Michael would need to return to the Pelican and access the com system to get more information on this Susan Currie. There was only a small window of opportunity that Michael would have to maybe catch Jackson at this location which was a problem, but Michael had a much larger and more immediate problem… What was he going to do with Arden Muyser now…

Michael knew he couldn't leave Muyser alive as he would probably warn Jackson that something scary was looking for him and that would cause Jackson to go into hiding and who knew how long it would take to find him again… if he could find him! Michael couldn't just cut Muyser's throat as that would draw a lot of attention maybe causing Jackson to go into hiding… This would have to be something quieter and more subtle to not draw any immediate attention.

There was a time when Michael wouldn't have hesitated to do what was needed to be done… Michael looked into the eyes of the terrified man and he felt something he had never felt before… it was an icy feeling and it was causing Michael to hesitate, but his training kicked in and Michael knew what his duty was and where his allegiances lay… ONI had been quite explicit on how this situation should be handled.

Michael placed his left hand back over the man's mouth firmly clamping it over. The man started to struggle, but his cries were muffled by the armored gloved hand. Michael's strength easily held the man in place. Michael then pulled the knife away from the man's throat and used his right hand to pinch the man's nose shut… cutting off the man's air supply.

Michael could see the man's terrified eyes bulge as he realized what was happening as he was starved of air. The man flailed his arms about… striking at Michael's arms and body, but they bounced harmlessly off of Michael's armor not breaking the death grip Michael had on the man.

Michael kept watching as the man's eyes showed fear and panic and he could see the life drain from the man's eyes. The man's thrashing and flailing slowed down and weakened and then the man final stopped his struggling. Michael held on for another minute to be sure. Michael did a quick check to make sure that he left no evidence of his presence in Muyser's apartment. It was late and Michael planned on heading back to the LZ and the Pelican to get some rest and get more information on the lead he had to follow up on.

Michael moved to the apartment door and opened it quietly and slightly to peak out. He checked his motion sensors and the display was showing minimal movement with no one close by. Michael began to leave the apartment, but he paused for a quick second… He fought the urge to turn around and look back and he moved quickly and quietly into the late night disappearing into the darkness… leaving the man he had murdered behind him…

* * *

It was still dark when Michael arrived back at the LZ. The Pelican was still there and Michael could see that the crew was asleep inside the ship. Michael decided not to wake the crew as he didn't feel like answering any potential questions… he would answer them in the morning as it appeared that they would be here at least another day. Michael moved to the tree line surrounding the LZ and found a comfortable spot to sit down and relax at. He kept his helmet on and he used his suit's com system to hook into the Pelican's com system to relay to the main UNSC communications network. Michael did a quick search of UNSC and planetary databases for a Susan Currie… the woman that had been named by Muyser and where he could possibly locate his main target… Barton Jackson.

Michael confirmed that the address that he had extracted from Muyser was correct. He pulled up a map of the town of Brusa and quickly oriented the address on the map. Michael used his memory to recall the maps that he had studied of the town and he was trying to map out his approach to the location he would now need to go to.

The sun was starting to rise higher and Michael could hear with his augmented hearing that the crew on the Pelican was starting to stir. Michael had roughed out his plan to follow up on his only lead. He would need to sleep now as he would make his approach again using the cover of darkness. Michael would brief the Pelican crew first and then get some sleep…

* * *

The sun was starting to set. Michael had been up already for a couple of hours. He used that time to grab a bite to eat, to check his armor systems and his weapons. Michael also used the time to review his plan and approach on this next target. As Michael reviewed the data scrolling over his helmet display, he had to stifle a yawn. Michael had tried to sleep but he hadn't slept very well. His dreams had been assaulted by visions… nightmares… He saw the faces of those humans he had killed… He saw Anders… Muyser… all of them. He saw the face of the insurrectionist leader he had taken out on Jericho VII… He hadn't thought of that man in years… He had been the first man Michael had ever killed.

Michael pushed his exhaustion down and focused on his current mission… He had briefed the Pelican crew and they seemed to be taking it all in stride… like all military operations it was a case of hurry up and wait… they were just hoping there wouldn't be those moments of stark terror on this mission.

Michael would need to head out soon as he was going to have to circle around the town to get to the north side where the woman… Susan Currie was located. Michael had briefly toyed with the idea of cutting straight through the town as it would be faster, but there was a higher chance of being seen. Michael planned to use that as his retreat path if things went bad. Michael once again made his way out of the LZ to try and locate his primary target. He was hoping that luck would be on his side tonight.

* * *

Several hours later Michael found himself outside the house that his information indicated where Susan Currie lived. Michael used the darkness to cloak his presence and like he had been trained, he had avoided any detection by the local civilian population. Michael had located an observation point where he could observe the house and remain undetected. It was getting late but there where lights still on inside the house indicating that someone was still up.

Michael used the thermal optics in his helmet to scan the house and he picked four thermal signatures indicating people inside. Two of the signatures were large that would indicate that they were adults and the two smaller signatures would indicate that there were children inside the house. That there were two thermal signatures indicating that there were adults inside was a positive sign, but there was no way for Michael to know if Jackson was in there until he went in. That there were children inside complicated this mission and his entry to the house, but Michael had no choice as he had to find out if Jackson was in there and if he was this might be his only chance to grab and question him. Michael would continue to watch and wait… when everyone had finally gone to bed he would wait a little bit longer and then make his move…

* * *

Barton Jackson had just settled into bed with his wife. Even when he just laid beside her sleeping it was one of those precious moments that he savored. Living the life of an outlaw and insurrectionist was not a life style suited for raising a family. He had been involved with the insurrection and running weapons and other supplies for years… It wasn't until he had met Susan and had fallen in love with her and they'd had kids together that he really knew that he was fighting for something more than just money or some lofty political cause. He knew the risks that Susan and he were running and they had kept their marriage a secret. It was one thing if the UNSC tracked him down… he could live with that as he knew the risks, but if anything happened to Susan and their kids that was something he knew he couldn't handle.

Jackson had tried to stay away, but the kids were growing up so fast. Dylan had just turned six and Diana was two. Jackson hated to be away from his family. When the Covenant had invaded New Constantinople, Jackson had been fearful for his family's safety and had scrambled to try and make arrangements to get them off planet… He had been doing a deal with a man named Anders as he was trying to get his family off planet as well, but Anders had mysteriously disappeared and the supply shipment deal had fallen through as all the supplies had been destroyed in a fire. Jackson was suspicious that that the UNSC had been behind the fire and Anders's disappearance, but there was no direct evidence to link anything, but Jackson had remained careful and watchful for any UNSC activity in the area. The UNSC forces defeating the Covenant invasion had been a huge weight lifted off Jackson's mind. Though he would be loathful to admit it publicly, Jackson was quite glad that the UNSC forces had done something more useful and productive than putting down insurrectionists. Even though it appeared that the Covenant had been defeated here, Jackson was a careful man and wasn't one for taking chances… he was still planning to get his wife and kids off planet as soon as possible and had made the arrangements to leave within the next few weeks.

Jackson was drifting off to sleep savoring the memories of the time he had spent with his wife and kids this evening. He was slightly startled by a small noise coming from outside the bedroom. Normally Jackson would have been cautious, but he was with his family and he had let his guard down and got a little careless as he thought that no one knew about Susan. Jackson got up as he thought that maybe Dylan was up and he wanted to check on his son.

Jackson stumbled through the hallway half-asleep. He heard a low scraping sound coming from the kitchen/living room area of the house and he kept moving towards the sound as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He entered the living room and didn't see his son… Jackson's survival instincts kicked in, but it was too late as he felt an armored glove clasp over his mouth from behind and he suddenly felt the cold metal of a knife blade against his throat.

"Shhhh…" came a low menacing voice from behind Jackson.

Jackson had a brief thought of resisting, but the hand against his mouth had an unbreakable grip and the knife against his throat was the deciding factor against resisting.

"Answer my questions and you may have a chance…" spoke the voice.

Jackson knew that if this was the UNSC especially ONI then he had a next to nothing chance of surviving. The priority right now was to keep his family safe and then maybe look for an opportunity to escape later. Jackson nodded that he understood what was being said. Jackson felt the hand release from his mouth, but the knife was still firmly held against his neck. Jackson just needed to buy time so he could think his way out of this situation.

"You're Barton Jackson?" the voice asked.

Jackson paused for a moment and considered lying, but he had a feeling that his captor was testing him to see how he would respond. Jackson nodded very slowly as he was still aware of the knife being held against his throat.

"Yea… I'm Jackson…" Barton croaked out in a rough whisper.

Jackson's mind was racing trying to figure a way out of his predicament when with even the low light of the room he caught a glance from a reflection off the microwave door of the "person" that was holding him. "My god…" was all the Jackson could mutter as he saw the huge armored being in the reflection and Jackson's hopes fell.

"I want to know who your Innie contacts are… Where are the cells located?" the voice asked in its menacing low tone.

Jackson was at a loss for words and couldn't respond as he was still in shock from seeing the reflection of his captor. The sharp blade of the knife at his throat reminded Jackson of the situation he was in as pressure was applied to the blade and he felt a sharp jab at his throat. Jackson was about to respond when a very young voice spoke out from behind him surprising both him and his captor.

"Don't hurt my daddy!" the scared, yet strong and determined young voice said from the darkness.

Jackson felt himself being spun by his captor to face towards the voice. Jackson felt himself being moved with what seemed little or no effort on the part of his captor. "_So much for trying to overpower him or whatever this thing is…_" Jackson thought glumly. Jackson didn't have long to dwell on this as he and his captor turned and faced the young voice. Jackson had recognized the voice, but seeing his son standing there in the kitchen… that made him fear more for his son's safety and worries about his own personal safety quickly vanished.

There now occurred a strange kind of Mexican standoff… Jackson and his armored captor staring off against Jackson's son. Everything took on a surreal moment and Jackson knew that this standoff wouldn't last long and it could only end badly… badly for him and his family.

Jackson found his voice and looking at his son spoke in a calm and quiet voice, "Dylan… I want you to turn around and go back to your room and shut the door…"

But, Dylan refused to listen and got a stubborn look on his face… Jackson recognized it as he would get the same stubborn look himself. "Let go of my daddy!' Dylan said with no sign of backing down.

Jackson was starting to get a panicking feeling building up as his son refused to back down from protecting his father. He saw he had no option. "Whatever you want to know… I'll tell you… Just don't hurt my son or family…" Jackson said in a whisper so that his son wouldn't hear.

* * *

Michael had entered the house easily and quietly and using his helmet's thermal optics and night vision he quickly familiarized himself with the layout. He had managed to stay quiet and had seen the bedrooms with the sleeping children and the bedroom with Jackson and the woman sleeping. If he tried and grabbed Jackson from the bed, it would probably wake the woman and the situation would get more complicated. Michael moved back down the hallway and as he did he made sure that he closed the doors to the children's bedrooms. When Michael got into the kitchen area, he drew his combat knife. Michael scrapped the blade of his knife against the armor on his chest making a low noise… not too loud, but hopefully not enough to draw the children out. He could handle subduing the woman and Jackson, but handling children was something beyond Michael's realm of experience.

* * *

Luck continued to be on Michael's side as he saw Jackson stumble sleepily down the hallway towards the kitchen. Michael retreated into the shadows of the living room and scrapped his knife again lightly to draw Jackson in further. Michael moved into position and waited for his target to stumble into the trap…

* * *

Michael had started to interrogate Jackson, when a little boy had stumbled into the room. Michael chided himself for not noticing the boy sooner and now the situation was spinning out of control.

Jackson spoke in a whisper that Michael could hear, that he would tell him everything he wanted to know as long as he didn't hurt his family. Michael now faced a difficult decision… He could take Jackson away and interrogate him… Jackson's future status had already been predetermined by ONI, but yet Michael found himself staring at the young boy as he tried to protect his father and stare down Michael. The boy was no threat to Michael, but yet Michael couldn't help but stare at the boy and at that moment he was struck by a strange feeling. The boy had to be close to the age Michael had been when he had been taken for the Spartan program. The face of the dead Kevin Anders came back to Michael and he thought of how he had made Ander's children fatherless… How many children had he made fatherless… how many wives had he made widows following ONI's mission imperatives?

Michael was struck by a strange feeling as he held a knife to Jackson's throat and stared at the young boy. It was a feeling that he had never felt before… It took a moment for him to understand what he was feeling… It was guilt. Right at that moment Michael understood everything he had been feeling and his dreams… He was feeling guilty that he was hunting down and killing humans rather than spending all his effort and energy fighting the Covenant. But what could Michael do? He had his orders and his duty to do… A thought crossed his mind that had never occurred to him… What if ONI was wrong? What if their orders were a mistake? Did he have to obey orders that were wrong?

All these thoughts went through Michael's mind in the seconds that passed as Michael was caught in this strange stand-off. Even though it was only seconds it felt like hours passed as these thoughts raced through Michael's mind and he realized what he was feeling and he understood what his "true" duty was and where his obligations lay...

* * *

Jackson was trying to control his rising panic and the feeling that this was all going to end badly for him and his family. Jackson only felt shock at first as he suddenly felt the pressure from the knife tip lessen on his throat, but the biggest shock came next when his captor spoke.

"It's okay… Your daddy is helping the UNSC… He's just going to help me and then I'm going to leave…" the voice said in a calming tone.

The boy looked somewhat skeptically towards his dad, but Jackson was quick in the uptake and started nodding, "Yes… Yes… I'm just going to assist my UNSC friend here… Now go back to bed Dylan…" Jackson said.

Dylan's face suddenly got a smile at hearing his dad was going to help the UNSC. "Are you helping to fight those aliens?" Dylan said with boyish excitement growing in his voice at the thought of his dad helping beat back the dreaded and scary Covenant aliens.

Jackson was going to reply, but his captor beat him to the response. "Yes… Your dad is helping me to fight the Covenant… Now listen to your dad and go to bed as we have important business to discuss."

* * *

Michael looked at the young boy and even though what he had told the boy was stretching the truth about Jackson helping him and the UNSC fight the Covenant. In a roundabout way it was true, as this situation had made Michael face what he had been doing for ONI and what these types of missions were causing him to become. Michael needed to fight against the Covenant otherwise he would lose himself and his soul.

Michael watched as the boy got a slight disappointed look on his face as he wanted to stay and hear how his dad was going to help the UNSC fight the Covenant. Jackson spoke up saying that it was important that nobody know that he was helping the UNSC and for his son to go back to bed and he would talk to him later about what was going on.

* * *

Jackson watched as his son left somewhat reluctantly and went back to his room. Once he heard the door close on his son's bedroom, Jackson let out an audible sigh of relief. Jackson felt the grip loosen on him and rather than fight back or run away, he turned and looked puzzled at his now former captor. Jackson saw the huge armor shaped man (it looked like a robot) that had to be at least seven feet tall and he knew that fighting or running away wasn't an option.

"Why?" was all that Jackson could mutter at first still keeping his voice low as to not disturb his wife.

Jackson's shock and puzzlement only grew as the huge man looking robot replied, "Because it's the right thing to do…"

* * *

Michael had released Jackson and he had turned to face Michael. Michael knew that there would be repercussions from his actions, but Michael wasn't scared of them and would deal with whatever happened… he was a Spartan.

"_ONI can go screw themselves… I'll complete the missions the way I see fit…_" Michael thought smirking inside his helmet. Michael shook those thoughts out of his and refocused on the here and now as he still had this situation to deal with.

Michael heard Jackson's question and his reply seemed natural and right. As Michael answered he felt like a weight was lifting off his soul… this was the right thing to do.

Jackson still looked in shock and all he could say next was "Th…Thank you…"

"Don't thank me for anything yet… Here is how things are going to go down. I will ask my questions and you will tell me everything you know… Then you and your family are going to pack up, leave this planet and disappear… Do you understand me?" Michael said in a low serious tone.

"Ye…Yes" Jackson responded vigorously nodding his head too.

"If I find out that you lied to me or deliberately held anything back… There is nowhere in this galaxy you can hide that I won't find you… If I have to hunt you down… I will show no mercy… Do we have an understanding?" Michael said with his voice taking on an almost menacing growling tone this time.

Michael could see that Jackson understood as his eyes widen and he could only nod vigorously his affirmative understanding. Michael then told Jackson to sit down and then proceeded to ask his questions. Jackson was most co-operative and forth coming with his answers…

* * *

The questioning had gone on for nearly an hour and at times Jackson had even offered up information that Michael hadn't even asked questions to. Michael's audio and video recording devices recorded everything. Michael had a self-satisfied smirk on his face as Jackson was providing a veritable mother lode of information on insurgent operations not only on New Constantinople, but also in another six systems! Michael knew that he would have to do some "creative" editing when he got back to base as he didn't want ONI questioning his methods.

Michael had always been considered the rebel… the loner… among the Spartan recruits. At the thought of going up against ONI's potential wrath turned Michael's smirk into a smile as he relished the challenge.

Michael's attention refocused on Jackson as he noticed that he had stopped speaking and was slumped in the chair. "That's everything?" Michael asked.

"Yea… That's everything… That's all of it…" Jackson said in a monotone voice as he was drained from betraying the insurgency that he had worked for all these years. But what choice or options did he have?

Michael spoke, "Okay… Like I said… After I leave here, you will gather your family and go to the evacuation center in Antioch… Your family will be on the list for evacuation from the system… You'll arrive at Reach and then you and your family disappear from there… You talk to no one and I mean no one!" Michael said again in his low growling tone. Michael hadn't planned that far ahead for getting Jackson and his family off planet. It looked like he was going to have to call in another favor from Vice-Admiral Whitcomb in order to make this happen. If Michael couldn't get the Vice-Admiral to play ball then maybe he could get a "little creative" with the ONI security clearances he had been given. Either way Michael was going to keep his word to Jackson.

Jackson nodded his head wearily in understanding. He looked up at the armored man that he had spilled his guts to. By all rights he should be dead by now or locked up in one of ONI's deep dark cells, but this "person" was giving him a chance and a way out to save his family. Jackson watched as the "person" turned and started towards the door to leave. Jackson managed to croak out, "Thank… Thank you." Jackson watched in amazement as the huge armored man turned and looked at him with that helmet with the gold visor and nod towards him…

* * *

Michael left Jackson's house and made a quick return to the LZ to get to the Pelican. For some reason Michael felt he was moving faster than he had in weeks… The last time he had felt like this was when he was fighting the Covenant weeks ago.

Michael made it back to the LZ with no problems and he woke the Pelican crew to get them to prep for an immediate dust-off. The crew grumbled about being rudely woken up, but Michael didn't want to waste any more time here. He had plans and arrangements to make and not a lot of time to do it in. On the long return flight, Michael worked on how he was going to ask Vice-Admiral Whitcomb for this favor.

* * *

It was early morning when the Pelican landed back at the firebase. Michael was tired, but yet he felt different. He wasted no time exiting the Pelican to head towards the armory to get out of his battle armor. He had to make a call to the Vice-Admiral and then he had to ready his report to ONI. He would have to figure out when he would fit in food and sleep into his schedule. The face of Jackson's son was in Michael's mind and that was more than enough motivation to keep Michael going for now.

* * *

"_You must be mistaking me as your own personal travel agent!_" Vice-Admiral Whitcomb said over the video link with incredibility in his voice. Michael had been patient and managed to talk his way through to the Vice-Admiral's chief of staff, Commander Wright. Commander Wright at first wasn't going to patch Michael's call through, but Michael decided to gamble big time.

"This is a priority ONI situation and I need to talk to the Vice-Admiral… Immediately!" Michael said with urgency in his voice. Michael had never played poker before and wasn't familiar with all the terms, but at that moment he unknowingly had the best poker face in play.

Commander Wright shrugged and he knew that trying to stare down or dissuade a Spartan was a losing proposition. "Alright… I'll put you through…" Commander Wright replied as he forwarded Michael's video call through.

Michael explained the situation to the Vice-Admiral (Michael decided to omit several facts from the story as to not unduly influence the Vice-Admiral's decision) and stressed that it was important and in the best interests of the UNSC that this family get evacuated as soon as possible.

Michael watched as the Vice-Admiral got a painful look on his face and slowly shook his head as Michael finished presenting his case to get One Barton Jackson, his wife and two children priority clearance for evacuation. "So I'm to assume that this request is related to another ONI black-op mission? Wait... Be lay that… I'm almost afraid to know, so in this matter I'm going to play ignorant and grant you your request Sierra-113." Whitcomb said.

Michael could feel a smile grow on his obviously tired face, but he found the energy to come to attention and salute for the video call. "Thank you Sir!" Michael said with the obvious happiness and relief in his voice.

The Vice-Admiral shook his head again slowly, but this time he also got a smile on his face from seeing the Spartan's obvious happy mood.

Michael started to reach forward to end the video call, when the Vice-Admiral spoke up again, "Sierra-113… Next time you go out on one of your ONI jaunts… Can you kindly not commit UNSC resources to being your own personal taxi service… or at least let me know ahead of time… Understood?"

Michael could see that the Vice-Admiral was still smiling, but he could tell by the tone in Whitcomb's voice that he was being serious. "Crystal clear Sir!" Michael replied still smiling.

* * *

Michael cut the video call with the Vice-Admiral and let out a huge sigh of relief. Considering how Whitcomb could have responded to Michael's request things were turning out pretty good and falling into place. Michael was feeling pretty optimistic for the whole situation.

"_Things are turning out for the good…_" Michael thought to himself as he stood up and stretched. Michael started to head out of the room. He was going to grab a bite to eat first, then head to the armory to clean up his battle armor. After that Michael would put together his report for ONI and then grab some sleep. Michael had a feeling that he would be able to sleep pretty good or at least better than he had recently.

Michael would in retrospect kick himself for having voiced his thoughts about how good things were turning out thereby jinxing everything…

* * *

Deep in the emptiness of the outer fringes of the New Constantinople system, a very large area started to shimmer and space itself started to become distorted. The very fabric of existence appeared to start tearing itself apart. It was a harbinger of death coming…


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**_Orbital Defense Platform – Whiskey-Tango-004 – In orbit around New Constantinople – August 14, 2536 – 1722 Zulu Time_**

Ensign Greg Hamilton had the afternoon duty officer shift on the Orbital Defense Platform (ODP) with the designation Whiskey-Tango-004 or as her crew affectionately called her "The Iron Bitch". Ensign Hamilton had been assigned to this ODP ever since he had started his tour of duty on New Constantinople. He had served (and survived) through the Covenant invasion. He considered himself lucky as the Covenant had invaded outside his ODP's defense sector and since then had only been in minor engagements and providing support during the UNSC's counter-attack. During the Covenant invasion, two of the "Iron Bitch's" sister ODPs hadn't been as lucky. They had managed to either take out or badly damage a number of Covenant ships before they were destroyed by return plasma fire. The ODP that Hamilton was based on was a Mark II series.

The Mark II series ODP's primary weapon system was an Mk III Magnetic Accelerator Cannon (MAC). This second generation of ODP, besides having a heavier MAC weapon system, was equipped with heavy autocannons and Archer missile launchers for close in defense. The Mark II was also equipped with heavier armor that would allow this series of ODP to take heavier punishment in a fight compared to the earlier Mark I series of ODPs. Unfortunately there was currently only eight Mark IIs surviving in orbit around New Constantinople after the Covenant had invaded. These eight had been moved to provide overlapping fields of fire to protect the planet. Fortunately these weren't the only ODPs in place to protect the planet. There were also twenty-four of the earlier Mark Is.

Ensign Hamilton was currently in the Command Information Center (CIC) for the ODP. His main duty today was to oversee the crew manning the communications, sensors and weapons stations. He could access all the necessary data and information from his station's terminal display or he could look up at the large display panel that gave real-time information on the status of the planetary defense network for New Constantinople. Hamilton looked up from his station to the large display panel against the far wall of the CIC. He could see the green status lights of all thirty-two operational ODPs in orbit around New Constantinople. The ODPs had been organized into firing clusters. Each Mark II ODP was surrounded and supported by three Mark I ODPs. This ODP arrangement was designed as the MARK IIs carried a heavier MAC, but it had a slower rate of fire. The Mark Is would support and provide cover for the larger ODP while it reloaded between shots.

Since the UNSC had beaten back the Covenant invasion and re-established control of orbital space. Vice-Admiral Whitcomb had every available shipyard and manufacturing facility working overtime on building more ODPs for the defense of the planet. There were lots of rumors circulating around right now. One rumor went that there were at least a dozen Mark I's almost ready in the yards and that they could be deployed in the next two weeks with at least five Mark II's ready within the next four to five weeks.

The rumor that Hamilton hoped was true was that components for the newer Mark III ODPs were being shipped out from Reach and would be here within the month. Hamilton had read and studied the design specs on the Mark IIIs. Those stations were huge structures… like floating cities in space. The Mark III ODPs were more heavily armed and carried more firepower. Unfortunately they had only been deployed around Earth and Reach due to their enormous size, construction and power requirements. The Magnetic Accelerator Cannons on the Mark I's and II's could take out the smaller Covenant ships in one shot, but it took quite a number of rounds to penetrate and take out the shields and armor on the larger Covenant ships especially the Battle Cruiser and Super Carrier classes. The MAC's on the Mark IIIs were the Mk. V model and they were supposedly so big and powerful that they could take out those large ship classes in no more than two or three shots.

Hamilton let his mind wander, hoping that if they did get any Mark III ODPs that he would get the opportunity to transfer over, not that he didn't enjoy serving on board the "Iron Bitch". It was good duty serving on the ODPs. The crews had comfortable quarters and lots of good food and amenities. There was a regular leave schedule and the crew could shuttle down to the planet surface and enjoy the activities down there. There was no way that Hamilton would trade serving on an ODP to being a Marine. He had watched the news vids of the ground fighting and he could even see a lot of the larger explosions on the surface especially when that part of the planet was in its night terminator. The latest news reports that Hamilton had seen reported that the Marines were in the final stages of cleaning up the Covenant foothold on New Constantinople. It was mostly diehard Elites that refused to quit or surrender that were holding up the ground forces. "_Yes sir… there was no life like this… Warm… Dry… Hot food… Hot water… Definitely better off than those ground pounders…_" Hamilton thought to himself smiling.

It was at that moment a signal appeared on Hamilton's video display. Hamilton was a little irritated at having his pleasant daydreaming interrupted, but Hamilton was an efficient officer and shouldered his responsibilities well… that was why he was the duty officer for this shift. Hamilton pressed the touch screen button that opened the com channel on his headset.

"CIC Control… Status update?" Hamilton said into his headset.

"Sir… This is Evans…" came the female voice over Hamilton's headset.

Hamilton immediately pictured the face and name of the person that was talking to him. Audrey Evans was an enlisted technical specialist and her duty station was monitoring the long range sensors of the ODP. Those sensors scanned the vast empty reaches of space in the New Constantinople planetary system looking for any threats. Hamilton knew that Specialist Evans was one of the best sensor operators on the ODP. From some unknown reason Hamilton shivered as Evans reported in.

"Sir… My sensors are picking up some anomalies in grid sector H128… R159…" Evans continued.

Hamilton's mind immediately snapped to attention and he called up the referenced grid info on his display screen. That grid location was in an empty portion of space that wasn't used by UNSC ships as they usually entered the system on a different vector. "Can you tell what it is?" he asked trying to keep a growing bad feeling in check.

"Not yet Sir… It's at the extreme range of our sensors…" reported back the specialist.

"Could it be an equipment malfunction… natural space occurrence?" Hamilton asked with the tension increasing in his voice.

"No sir… I've performed an equipment check… I have also got ODP Whiskey-Tango-010 confirming the same readings…" reported Evans.

Hamilton paused as he was now aware that all the duty crew in the ODP CIC were now watching and listening to the exchange between himself and Evans. Hamilton pressed a couple of buttons on his keyboard and the large CIC display panel changed to show a larger view of the planetary system. The display showed New Constantinople and then marked the area where the "anomaly" was located in relation to the planet.

Hamilton could feel his mouth go dry and he didn't want to ask, but his duty required him to voice the thoughts he had, "Evans… If you had to guess… What do you think is causing that anomaly?"

Hamilton could hear a long pause over his headset and then Evans's words came slowly with no self-doubt in them, "If I had to guess… I would say that we're picking up the start of a Slipspace rupture… A big Slipspace rupture…" Evans reported.

Hamilton didn't hesitate after that… He pressed the key commands to send out an alert warning to the planetary defense system and a flash traffic message was sent to fleet headquarters on the planet surface as well as to all UNSC ships in system.

The CIC was in dead silence as the alert message was sent out…

* * *

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb moved at a fast pace into the fleet command center in his headquarters' building in Antioch. Even though he moved quickly, he didn't appear panicked or flustered by the alert message. It wouldn't help morale if the troops saw their commander looking out of sorts by an alert. Whitcomb tried to keep his face from frowning or showing too much concern as he entered his command center. He made his way over to the main holographic display table. He saw his chief of staff, Commander Wright already there looking at his tablet and could see him stabbing and swiping the tablet screen at an almost frantic pace. Whitcomb paused and could see that the command center staff was running around and working themselves into an almost panic state.

Whitcomb couldn't let this continue as panicked people make mistakes and the mistakes these people could make would get other good people killed. Whitcomb caught the eye of Commander Wright and the Vice-Admiral nodded to the Commander. It only took a moment for Wright to understand as he picked up on the vibe and mood in the command center.

Wright didn't hesitate, "ATTENTION ON DECK!" he shouted so that everyone in the command center could hear.

All the personnel in the command center reacted in unison and snapped to attention as they heard the command and saw the Vice-Admiral standing just inside the entrance of the command center.

Whitcomb paused as he looked around the command center at his people. He was proud of his people and knew what they were capable of doing. They had already turned back one Covenant invasion… they could face whatever this was.

Whitcomb spoke to the personnel in the command center. He didn't raise his voice and he kept a calm strong tone to reassure everyone. "Okay… Everybody focus on your jobs… We don't know what we're facing… We'll deal with whatever it is as we have always faced the unknown… We'll do our duty as required…"

Whitcomb nodded and everyone went back to their duties. The Vice-Admiral could see his words almost take an immediate effect as all the personnel continued working, but the panic mood that threatened to overtake the command center had passed.

Whitcomb made his way to holographic table and stood next to his chief of staff. "What's our status Commander?" the Vice-Admiral said maintaining his calm tone and standing in a relaxed parade rest with his hands clamped behind his back.

Commander Wright pressed some commands on his tablet and the holographic table came to life bringing up a 3-D representation of the New Constantinople system. All the planetary bodies appeared followed by symbols representing all UNSC fleet units in the system. "All available fleet units are reporting their status right now… Fleet units are moving to form up behind the moon… Planetary ODP's reporting they are at full alert…" Commander Wright reported.

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb nodded in approval as he noted how his fleet responded to this unknown threat. "Any further update on what we're facing out there?" Whitcomb asked not taking his eyes off the holographic display.

Commander Wright shook his head as he checked his tablet for updates, "Nothing beyond our initial scans… It's just at the edge of our scanning range and whatever it is… It is large and generating a lot of electronic noise out there that we can't get a solid read on it…"

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb pondered the dilemma that he was facing, He was working in the dark and he needed more information… He looked at the holographic display again and the disposition of his ships in the star system. "Which ships are closet to the anomaly?" Whitcomb asked without taking his eyes of the display.

* * *

Captain Gebhuza Contee looked at the main status display panel on the bridge of his Paris-class heavy frigate _Desperate Warrior_. The frigate was lead ship in his small flotilla… There were four other ships in the flotilla… The other ships were the more lightly armed and armored Stalwart-class light frigates. Captain Contee had been leading his flotilla on exercises in the outer reaches of the New Constantinople system, when the alert flash message had come in. The Captain had immediately ordered his ships to red alert and had started to make a course change to move his flotilla back closer to New Constantinople, when a call had come in from Vice-Admiral Whitcomb at fleet headquarters.

The Vice-Admiral outlined to the Captain that at the moment, they only had the roughest of ideas of what was going on as the spatial anomaly was at the extreme edge of their sensors. The Vice-Admiral needed Captain Contee to take his flotilla out closer to the target area… they needed "eyes" on that sector of space and fast. The Captain quickly responded and changed direction for the co-ordinates of the area in question. The Vice-Admiral reminded the Captain that while it was important to find out what was going on, that he was to protect his command or as the Vice-Admiral had succinctly put it… "Go in take a quick look and then get the hell out of there…"

The Captain turned to the sensor and tracking stations on the bridge. "Anything yet?" he asked the senior sensor specialist.

"We're still getting lots of interference… Sir. But it's clearing up as we get closer…" replied the specialist.

The Captain grimaced as he hated going into something like this not knowing what they were facing. He had deployed his flotilla into an inverted wedge formation, with the _Desperate Warrior_ at the tip of the wedge.

Captain Contee turned to the communications station on the bridge, "Are the other ships getting the same readings as us?"

"Yes Sir… Other ships report no change in readings…" replied the communications officer as he checked in with the other ships in the flotilla.

The Captain continued grimacing at his situation. "Are all our readings being sent back to Fleet HQ?" asked the Captain as he turned to look towards his bridge's observation window.

"Aye Sir… Everything is going back in real-time…" replied the communications officer.

The Captain nodded as he continued looking out the observation window. "NAV… Prepare to increase speed… COM… Inform the flotilla to prepare to match our speed…" Captain Contee ordered as he was getting tired of not knowing what was happening. He heard the affirmatives come in from each station and he felt the comforting rumble as he ship started to increase speed towards the unknown anomaly…

* * *

It took another ten minutes at increased speed, when Captain Contee got a report from his sensor station. "Sir… Interference is clearing… We're starting to get some solid readings now…" Captain Contee could hear the tension increase in the crewman's voice. Captain Contee was just trying to remember to breath normally, when the sensor tech suddenly yelled out…

"SLIPSPACE RUPTURE… DETECTING SLIPSPACE RUPTURE!' yelled the sensor specialist completely forgetting decorum and protocol.

Captain Contee acted immediately, "COM… Send flash traffic to Fleet HQ… Detecting Slipspace rupture… Inform them we are still advancing to gather more information…" Contee said in a calm tone to try and keep the mood calm on the bridge.

It seemed that the captain's orders had barely left his mouth, when the sensor specialist yelled out again.

"CONTACTS! I've got multiple contacts entering normal space..."

"Can you identify how many and who they are?" asked the Captain trying to keep a bad feeling from rising from the pit of his stomach.

"10… 20… 25… No wait… 50… More coming through!" the sensor said and then he paused. The Captain turned and looked at the sensor station and looked at the sensor specialist. The crewman manning the sensor station was a young looking man in his early twenties. The captain saw him look up from his sensor display console and could see the crewman's face white in fear.

The Captain meet the crewman's eyes and calmly asked him, "What is it son?"

"They're Covenant… They're all Covenant…" the crewman said with fear in his voice…

* * *

The mood in the fleet command center on New Constantinople had soured badly at the news of Covenant ships entering the system.

"Sir… UNSC _Desperate Warrior_ has at least eighty-four Covenant ships emerging from Slipspace with more emerging…" reported Commander Wright as he read the latest update from his tablet.

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb grimaced as he watched the holographic display table and it was updated to indicate Covenant forces now in system. "Do we have any info of what ship classes we are facing?" asked Whitcomb trying not to show his anger and frustration.

The thought quickly flashed through Whitcomb's mind, "_Not now… Not now… We needed more time to rebuild our defenses…_" But he didn't betray his feelings to his staff.

"Captain Contee is trying to reposition his flotilla to get a better scan of the incoming Covenant fleet… It appears that the Covenant has already formed up and are advancing on him…" replied Commander Wright in a monotone voice.

* * *

Captain Contee maintained a firm grip on the arms of his bridge station chair as his ship shuddered from another near miss. "Report!" Contee ordered in a strong firm voice as he tried to maintain the exterior presence of a Captain in control of the situation. It seemed to take all of Contee's self-control to maintain any sort of composure facing the nightmare that was advancing on him and his ships.

"Minor hull damage on the port forward section… We seem to just be at the edge of their heavy plasma cannon range…" reported the damage control officer.

"Status of the rest of our ships?" Contee asked.

"All other ships report no or minimal damage…. Except for the frigate _Sun and Shadow_… She took a major hit that breached her hull… They report that they have managed to seal the breach and put out the fires and stopped venting air… She's maintaining speed…" reported the communications officer.

"Sensors… What's the latest on the Covenant fleet?" Contee asked trying to rationalize that whatever information they could gather would balance off any damage (or losses) they took.

"Sir… I've confirmed ninety-two hard targets that have emerged from Slipspace… I have no indications of anymore Covenant ships emerging into normal space…" replied the sensor specialist.

"_Damn… We've never seen the Covenant assemble this size of fleet before…_" Contee thought as he saw the display indicating the huge number of Covenant ships in system.

Up to this point in the war, the Covenant had only sent in small groups of ships to attack human colonies. In most encounters the humans had been able to either match the numbers or slightly outnumber the Covenant ships, but the Covenant's tech advantage in weapons and shields heavily offset any numerical advantages that the UNSC had been able to muster in most cases. It was only on those rare occasions that the UNSC had gathered such an overwhelming numerical advantage and had also been willing to accept horrific losses had they been able to defeat a Covenant fleet, like Vice-Admiral Whitcomb had done with the first Covenant invasion fleet. Needless to say those types of encounters had been very rare so far in the war. The UNSC was now facing its worst nightmare as the Covenant now appeared to be gathering huge fleets together to smash human defenses and Captain Contee's tiny flotilla was now in the way as this juggernaut moved towards them and New Constantinople…

"Have you confirmed any types or ship classes?" the Captain asked.

The tone of the sensor specialist's voice changed as he spoke, "Sir… I don't have exact data on all the targets, but from what I have be able to lock on and track I have been able to identify at least twenty-eight CCS-class battlecruisers, fourteen CAS-class assault carriers, eighteen ORS-class heavy cruisers and twenty-two CPV-class heavy destroyers… Sir… They appear to be trying to close the range with us!"

"NAV… Increase speed and maintain our distance from them!' the Captain quickly ordered.

"Aye Sir…"

"COM… Make sure that Fleet HQ has got a copy of our sensor readings…" Captain Contee said, but before he could say anything else he was suddenly interrupted.

"CONTACTS!" yelled the sensor specialist.

"Report!" ordered the Captain as he wondered what was happening now.

"Sir… We're picking up multiple contacts… Small fast moving bogies have just appeared and are moving to intercept us… They should be on us in an estimated five minutes!' reported the specialist.

"_Damn! That could only mean that they've launched fighters or gunboats to catch up and engage us…_" thought the Captain.

"Numbers?" asked the Captain

"Fifty plus incoming…" the specialist said as the Captain could see his face blanch as he reported the incoming wave of enemy ships.

Captain Contee only paused for a second, "Bring on-line all point defense autocannons and make sure that our Archers have solid locks before we engage… COM… Alert the rest of the group and tell them to prepare for incoming fighter attack…"

* * *

Whitcomb looked at the information as it was updated on the holographic display and the tablet he now had in his hand. "_Ninety-Two ships with at least twenty-eight battlecruisers…_" Whitcomb thought to himself as he absorbed the information that was coming in from the tiny flotilla that was in the way of this approaching Covenant wave of death. He did the cruel math in his head that it would cost him at least three ships for every Covenant ship, _"…at least eighty-four ships to just take out the battle cruisers… I've only got one hundred and fifteen ships that are battle-ready…_" Whitcomb thought. There was no way that the UNSC fleet could go out and meet this incoming Covenant fleet in open battle, but at least Whitcomb had an ace up his sleeve… the ODPs. The Orbital Defense Platforms had as much firepower as his heavy cruisers, but they couldn't move. The key was to keep the ODPs safe to use their firepower to take out the heavier Covenant ships. The fleet would have to act as a shield and keep themselves between the Covenant fleet and the ODPs while the ODPs acted as Whitcomb's sword and hit back. This would mean that his ships would take heavy casualties and losses, but it seemed to be the only way that they would even have a chance against a Covenant fleet this size.

Whitcomb quickly analyzed the Covenant fleet dispositions and approach from the intel his sensors and Captain Contee's flotilla had gathered. Orders were then sent out to the fleet units to reposition themselves between the Covenant and the ODPs. The downside to this placement of ships is that they would literally be with their backs against the wall as they would be close to the gravity well of the planet and there wouldn't be a lot of room to maneuver.

Whitcomb turned to Commander Wright, "Tell Captain Contee that it's time for him to get out of there… Tell him to make best speed to break away and get back here…"

Commander Wright nodded and quickly got the orders flashed to Captain Contee on the UNSC _Desperate Warrior_…

* * *

Fleet Master Duran 'Korahee looked at the tactical display on the bridge of his CSO-class supercarrier _Glorious Devotion_ and was not pleased with his current situation. The Fleet Master's task force had come out of Slipspace too soon and had entered this star system too far out from the planet that was home to the human heretics that threatened the Great Journey.

"_Damn the incompetents that gave us these Slipspace coordinates… We should have entered normal space much closer to that human vermin planet… We have now given them time to organize their defenses…_" Duran 'Korahee thought trying to control his anger at the lost opportunity.

The Fleet Master took the opportunity to get his task force in order before they advanced on this planet. Again the anger and disappointment flowed briefly through 'Korahee's thoughts as now it would cost him more warriors and ships to fulfill his divine mission and destroy the humans on this planet than it should have if they had arrived closer in. Those thoughts were quickly pushed away as one of the bridge crew manning the sensor station spoke up.

"Fleet Master! I have five human ships approaching us…" reported the Sangheili warrior manning the sensor station.

The Fleet Master didn't hesitate. "Order the task force to move to engage the humans!"

The Fleet Master paused for a moment as he tried to absorb all the information and the situation that was developing. He then turned towards the bridge communications station. "Inform the rest of the task force to remain in Slipspace for now…" Duran 'Korahee ordered.

This caused some strange and puzzled looks to appear on the bridge crew's faces, but the order was sent out without question or delay.

"_This mistake may yet still be reversed…_" Duran 'Korahee thought as he quickly made adjustments to his original attack plan to now take in account this new situation. A predatory smile came to the Fleet Master's face as he thought of what he was going to spring on those vermin humans with the remaining thirty-six ships of his task force still in Slipspace…

* * *

The minutes passed by and Fleet Master 'Korahee could feel his impatience start to build again. He had ordered his ships that were in normal space to pursue the small group of human ships that had come close to his task force. Unfortunately the human ships had managed to keep at the extreme range of his task force's weapons. They had fired plasma torpedoes at the fleeing human ships, but had caused minimal damage and hadn't slowed them down enough to close the range.

Ship Master Phur 'Doravee who commanded the _Glorious Devotion_ could see the Fleet Master's frustration growing and that wasn't a good sign when your commander was showing his frustration before the battle had been engaged. The Ship Master needed to do something to change the Fleet Master's state of mind.

"Fleet Master… If I may suggest something…" 'Doravee spoke in a respectful tone to not offend the Fleet Master and have his wrath turn on him.

'Doravee saw 'Korahee turn and saw the Fleet Master give him a look that warned him he was treading a fine line. "What is it?" said the Fleet Master trying to keep his frustration in check.

"Sir if I may suggest… We could launch our fighters to pursue, overtake and destroy those human ships…" 'Doravee said still keeping the respectful tone in his voice. The Ship Master could see 'Korahee pondering the suggestion and quickly added. "Even if the fighters do not destroy the larger human ships… they could damage and slow them down enough for our task force to close and destroy them…"

The Ship Master saw the Fleet Master ponder his suggestion and then spoke, "Your suggestion has merit… Launch fighters to pursue and destroy those vermin…"

* * *

Captain Contee almost got thrown from his bridge chair as his ship shuddered from a hit.

"Report!" Contee ordered as he tried to make himself heard over the din of the bridge crew shouting commands and the ship's intercom systems buzzing with reports and updates from other parts of the ship.

"Sir… We have fires on decks four and five…they're under control... Aft section deck six is exposed to space… We're venting air… We lost partial power to deck two… Engineering is reporting some power surges…" reported the damage control officer.

"NAV… Maintain course and speed…" the Captain ordered. Contee heard the navigation officer respond in acknowledgement.

Captain Contee turned to the weapons station, "Status on enemy targets?" he asked.

"There were seventy Seraph-class fighters in that strike… We have confirmed fifteen kills from our point defense cannons and Archer missiles…" came the report.

The Captain nodded. "Status of our ships?" as he turned to the communications station.

Captain Contee heard the status report of his flotilla, "Sir… The _Conscientious Objector_ and _Red Palm_ are reporting damage, but nothing major… The _Casey_ is reporting fires and major hull damage… _Sun and Shadow_ is reporting major damage and fires… They've lost power to their weapons systems… They're losing speed and falling out of formation!"

The ship shuddered as it took another hit, "Seraphs coming in for another pass!" came a cry from the weapons station…

* * *

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb watched the holographic display as it showed real-time status updates of the battle that was occurring in the outer reaches of the system. He could see the icons representing his ships… his people… struggling to stay alive from the fighter strike and stay ahead of the onrushing Covenant fleet… If all it took was to will those holographic icons representing his ships to move faster those ships would be half way across the system by now. But all Whitcomb could do was watch helplessly as his people endured running the gauntlet and he knew deep down that he was going to lose ships and people…

* * *

Smoke was filling the bridge of the UNSC _Desperate Warrior_. Captain Contee coughed and shouted out over the noise of the bridge, "REPORT!"

"Sir… All decks reporting damage… Major outer hull damage… Minor damage to the engines, but we are maintaining speed… MAC has taken major damage and is off-line… Hanger Bay exposed to space…" the damage control officer reported causing Contee to grimace as he heard how much damage his ship had taken.

The Captain was about to ask for a status update on the other ships in his flotilla, when the bridge observation window was lit up by a huge blinding light causing the bridge crew to either look away or shield their eyes.

"The _Casey_… She just blew up!" came the cry from the sensor station.

Captain Contee froze at the feeling of having lost a ship under his command… a ship and crew that he was responsible for. Contee pushed down the thoughts and feelings as they would have to be dealt with later… much later.

"Where are those enemy fighters?" Contee demanded.

"It appears they are breaking off… We took out another eighteen fighters in that last strike…" came the report.

Contee was about to let out a sigh of relief, that maybe they had survived this ordeal, when the communication stations reported, "Sir… _Sun and Shadow_ is reporting that their losing power… engines and weapons off-line… Reporting fires and major hull damage…"

Captain Contee punched some commands on his display terminal at his station and brought up communications, "_Sun and Shadow_… this is _Desperate Warrior_… Do you read me? Come in _Sun and Shadow_…"

The video display was garbled and distorted, but Captain Contee could hear something coming over the audio channel. "_Desperate Warrior_… This is _Sun and Shadow_… We can barely read you… Over…"

Captain Contee was relieved that he had established communications with the frigate, "This is Captain Contee… Who am I talking to?" the Captain asked as he did not recognize the voice.

The voice coughed several times, "This is Ensign Moore… Sir." came the reply.

Contee was shocked, "Where's Commander Cruz?" asked the Captain.

"He's dead… Most of the bridge crew is dead… I'm the only officer still alive on the bridge… Sir" reported the voice as he coughed several more times.

Contee was stunned, but he refocused on the situation at hand. The voice of Ensign Moore sounded young… young and scared. "What's your status…son?" the Captain asked in a calm tone as he didn't want to dump more on the Ensign's plate than what he was already dealing with.

"Engines are off-line… Weapons are gone… We have fires on most decks or they're exposed to space and we're venting air… We are dead in space… Sir" replied the young scared voice, but the Ensign had managed to remain calm while delivering the death knell of his ship.

The Captain knew what had to be done… It was the final duty of any UNSC crew… It was the law… "Ensign Moore… You are directed to implement UNSC Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1… As per this order, you are to make sure all databanks and nav info is wiped… You will then scuttle your ship… Do you understand?" he asked in a calm and deliberate tone.

United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1 or also known as the "Cole Protocol" was the order given to all UNSC personnel that they had to ensure that no data containing Slipspace navigation data about Earth or any other human world was to fall into the Covenant's hands. The order also stated that to prevent capture, any UNSC or Human vessel, in the event of an emergency evacuation, was to self-destruct, after wiping all data.

"Can you evacuate by life pod or Pelican?" Captain Contee asked the Ensign.

There was a pause and then the Ensign spoke, "No Sir… The hanger bay is gone… We can't get to the life pods from the bridge as we're cutoff… We've lost communications to most of the ship, so we can't order an evacuation…" the voice trailed off.

The Captain swallowed hard as he had to ask the next question as he kept one eye on the status of the advancing Covenant fleet. "Can you carry out the order? Can you self-destruct the ship?" he asked.

"Yes Sir!" came the Ensign's reply. "I'll make sure that they don't take my ship."

Contee let out an inner sigh of relief because if Ensign Moore couldn't scuttle the _Sun and Shadow_, then Captain Contee wouldn't have had any choice but to fire a nuke at the ship to ensure that it wouldn't fall into the Covenant's hands. Contee still felt guilty at losing this ship and crew, but it wasn't as bad as if he had to destroy the ship himself. Contee heard the Ensign's determination to carry out this last order and he felt pride and sadness. He also felt guilty and wished he'd had a chance to meet the Ensign in person.

"Thank you son…" was all that Contee could say in response.

The young voice spoke again, "Sir…" there was a pause, "Make sure that the Covenant pays for this?"

The Captain felt a lump in his throat and it took a moment for him to respond, "You have my promise… The Covenant will pay dearly for this…"

"Thank you sir… This is UNSC _Sun and Shadow_… Implementing Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1… Out!" Ensign Moore said over the communications channel and then the line was cut.

"God Speed…" Captain Contee whispered into the dead communications channel.

Contee felt his ship shudder slightly. The report from the sensor station was a mere formality as he already knew that the Ensign had successfully carried out his last order on his first command. The Captain turned his attention back to saving his ship and the surviving ships of his flotilla as they continued their escape from the advancing Covenant fleet.

In the wake of the flotilla survivors, as they made their way to the perceived safety of the fleet and New Constantinople, floated the debris of the UNSC _Sun and Shadow_…


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**_Covenant CSO-class Supercarrier Glorious Devotion – New Constantinople System – August 14, 2536 – 2005 Zulu Time_**

Fleet Master Duran 'Korahee studied the tactical display, at his station on the bridge of his flagship, showing the disposition of the ships of his task force that had emerged from Slipspace. His initial feelings of frustration and impatience were slowly subsiding as his fighters had easily destroyed two of the human's frigate class ships and had heavily damaged the other three as they fled back to the false safety of their planet in this system. The task force that had been dispatched to reinforce the first invasion force had formed up into their echelons and was advancing across the system to the planet the humans inhabited. The Fleet Master's first impulse was to rush in to do battle and quickly overwhelm the human defenders, but the tactical scans and reports from the first invasion force reported that the humans had defense platforms in orbit around this planet which was unlike what the Covenant had faced in their previous attacks and destruction of other human colonies. "_This must be an important world to the humans if it rates such a defense…_" 'Korahee mused as he contemplated his strategy to deal with the human defenses and fulfill his duty… his imperative… to exterminate all humans on this world.

From the tactical sensor scans and reports from the previous invasion, Duran 'Korahee knew that these defense platforms would be difficult targets to destroy and they carried as heavy or even heavier weapons than the human's largest ships. The Fleet Master turned to the Sangheili warrior who was manning the ship's communication console and ordered, "Inform the task force to move closer together… I want to project a small front on our approach to this planet."

As the order was acknowledged and sent out to the rest of the ships in the task force, Ship Master Phur 'Doravee approached the Fleet Master as he had heard the command and was concerned by the Fleet Master's orders.

"Fleet Master… Are you sure about the task force assuming this formation? Won't this make it easier for the humans to target and hit our ships with their kinetic cannons? We won't have much room to maneuver to avoid the human's fire…" the Ship Master said using his respectful tone.

The Fleet Master was about to rebuke the Ship Master for his insolence in questioning his methods, but then remembered that the Ship Master had suggested launching the fighters against the group of human ships earlier and causing them much destruction and damage. The Fleet Master held back his temper as he would instruct the Ship Master on the tactics that were being employed and also re-emphasis why he was the Fleet Master and 'Doravee was still only a Ship Master.

"'Doravee… You've seen the scans of this human world have you not?" asked 'Korahee

The Ship Master nodded his acknowledgement that he had seen those scans.

The Fleet Master continued with his explanation of his orders, "Then you are aware that the humans have orbital defense constructs around the planet… These defense constructs carry heavy weapons, but have limited movement… We must approach on a narrow front to minimize our exposure to those platforms… Only a small number of the platforms will be able to engage us at one time… We will still take losses, but they will be less than if we tried to come in on a broad front… Those platforms that we do not engage initially, we can destroy at our leisure once we have destroyed the human's fleet in this system… Plus I have several tricks to throw at the humans that they will not be expecting… Do you understand…No?"

The Ship Master nodded in understanding and started to turn around to head to one of the bridge stations, when the Fleet Master spoke up again causing the Ship Master to turn back and look at his commander.

"'Doravee… If you ever question my commands again… I will have you gutted and ejected into space from an air-lock… Do I make myself clear?" the Fleet Master said in a low menacing tone.

Ship Master 'Doravee bowed his head deeply to show that he understood the threat his commander had given him.

The Covenant task force closed up and continued its advance towards the planet and its waiting human defenders…

* * *

**_UNSC Fleet Command HQ – Antioch, New Constantinople – August 14, 2536 – 2015 Zulu Time_**

Vice-Admiral Danforth Whitcomb stared at the holographic display showing the disposition of his fleet units and the approaching Covenant fleet. He tried to understand and figure out what the alien commander was thinking and doing, so that he could react to it. It was hard trying to think like an alien commander, but there are several universal constants that applied and that made it easier for Whitcomb to try and develop a counter strategy to the alien's attack. Whitcomb had considered taking a Pelican up to his flagship, but at this time he needed all the intel and communication equipment to co-ordinate the planet wide defense, so he was tied for the moment to his planet-side HQ.

Every sensor on every UNSC ship and orbital defense platform was feeding real-time information to the computer systems in Fleet HQ and that information was being displayed and updated on the holographic display that Whitcomb was staring hard at. The Vice-Admiral saw how the Covenant fleet seemed to be merging closer together and bunching up into a close-in wedge formation. This brought a concerned frown to the Vice-Admiral's face as he realized that the Covenant enemy commander was minimizing his exposure to the ODPs and their weapons. The Vice-Admiral would need to react fast and adjust as the enemy fleet would be in range in the next fifteen minutes…

Whitcomb spoke up while still staring at the holographic display, "Commander Wright… Order the carriers _Georgia_, _Oregon_ and _Ontario_ to withdraw with their escorts and take position on the far side of the moon… They are to launch their Longsword squadrons to conduct harassing strikes on the Covenant fleet's left flank…" This maneuver might cause the Covenant to break formation to chase down the carriers and get them in the firing arcs of the other ODPs. Either way this was going to get messy and ugly for everyone involved.

The Vice-Admiral turned to the communication station, "Have all Marine and ground units been alerted?" asked the Vice-Admiral.

"Yes sir… All units report either moving into defensive positions or already in position…" replied the communication technician.

"Have all civil-defense units been alerted as well?" asked the Vice-Admiral.

"Yes sir… The warning has gone out on all civilian channels and civil-defense units are reporting they are ready and standing by…" came the report back.

The Vice-Admiral grimaced as he thought of what was going to happen to all the civilians on New Constantinople if he failed to stop the Covenant attack. "Commander Wright…" Whitcomb said as he stood up and turned away momentarily from the holographic display table.

"Sir?' replied the Commander.

"I want you to send the command to execute evacuation plan Exodus-Three…" spoke the Vice-Admiral in a matter of fact tone.

Commander Wright took a moment as he had thought he had misheard the Vice-Admiral and then he spoke up puzzled, "Sir? Are you sure that you want to execute Exodus-Three?" the Commander said trying to not show his surprise and concern in his voice. "This could cause wide-spread panic among the civilian population and we don't even know where the Covenant will land… if they do land." the Commander continued saying.

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb looked grimly at his chief of staff and in a low voice spoke that only the Commander could hear, "James… The Covenant are going to break through our defenses… The question is how badly we are going to maul them as they break through… Knowing how the Covenant have operated in the past… They are going to go for the cities first to glass them and I'll be damned if I don't give the civilians a chance and not leave them helpless in those deathtraps…"

Commander Wright was taken aback by the Vice-Admiral's use of his first name and in the tone he was using. "But Sir… Moving all those civilians to the evacuation points… We just don't have the logistics to move and support them…" Commander Wright replied remembering to keep his tone low.

Vice-Admiral Danforth Whitcomb sighed and got a sad faraway look in his eyes, "We have to face the truth… James… We're not going to get everyone off this planet… But we have to give them at least a chance… We'll move Marine units into the cities and fight the Covenant there… The longer we can bog them down in the cities the more people we can evacuate…"

The Commander nodded grimly as he understood and knew what the Vice-Admiral was saying was the truth. "I'll send the orders out right away… We can at least start with the people already in the evacuation centers… We have the troop transport ships and we can use those warships that aren't able fight in the evacuation…" Commander Wright said.

Whitcomb nodded to his chief of staff. The Vice-Admiral turned and once again looked at the holographic display and the icons representing the Covenant fleet continuing their advance… There were only minutes before the ODPs would be able to attain target lock… The Covenant would be able to return fire with their plasma cannons, but the ODPs were designed to take the punishment and his ships could maneuver somewhat. But yet something was nagging at the back of Whitcomb's mind. The Covenant commander was advancing and bunching his ships together… They appeared that they were just going to advance into the defenses… nothing fancy just straight in…

"_Either that Covenant commander is so sure of his tech advantage and doesn't think much of us or he's got something up his sleeve…_" Whitcomb thought as he tried to think like the alien commander and try to anticipate what was going to happen.

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb turned towards the communication station in the command center, where Commander Wright was at the moment sending out the commands to start executing the evacuation plans. "Commander Wright… Alert Alpha Company to be on standby to deploy and when you have a moment… I want you to then get on the horn to our Spartan friend… I want him on a Pelican and in orbit ASAP… I want him stationed on one of the Mark II ODPs…"

Commander Wright looked at his commander with a puzzled look, "Sir… I'm not sure I understand?"

"Just make it so Commander… I'm hoping that my bad feeling is just that… But I want a Spartan in place in case things go sideways on us…" Vice-Admiral Whitcomb said in an almost prophetic tone.

* * *

**_UNSC Firebase Mitchell – New Constantinople – August 14, 2536 – 2023 Zulu Time_**

Michael was sprinting for the landing pad and he could see the Pelican waiting for him there. Michael could hear the engines of the dropship whining at a high pitch as it was ready to do an emergency takeoff once he was aboard.

All around Michael the firebase was in a frantic upheaval of activity as troops and equipment was being prepared for battle and moving out to prepared defensive positions. Michael had been catching up on some much needed rest after his ONI mission when the alert went out that the Covenant had returned. Michael could overhear other soldiers talk and there was much speculation and rumor over what was happening, but no real information had been released other than Covenant forces had returned. Michael didn't pay much attention to the rumor mill. If the Covenant had returned then it was serious no matter what numbers and disposition they were in.

Michael had been in the base's armory when the call had come in from Commander Wright for Michael to get up to one of the ODPs in orbit. Michael had been at first puzzled at the request as he thought he would be more useful here on the ground, but when the Commander informed Michael that this order had come straight from the Vice-Admiral. Michael immediately put away any doubts and hesitations and made sure that he had loaded up on ammo and grenades and made his way to the base's landing pad as the Commander informed him that a Pelican would be waiting for him to transport him up to the Orbital Defense Platform with the designation Whiskey-Tango-004.

Michael boarded the waiting Pelican and barely sat down as the dropship dusted off and roared up into the sky. As the Pelican accelerated to climb into orbit to dock with the ODP, Michael checked his weapons. As he did this, Michael took a moment to wonder and hoped that Barton Jackson and his family made it to the evacuation center. Michael had a momentary feeling of guilt if he had told Jackson to take his family to Antioch only to find themselves trapped there with the Covenant attacking.

Michael looked towards the front of the Pelican as he overheard one of the Pelican pilots suddenly exclaim "Jesus… The ODPs are opening up!"

* * *

Ensign Hamilton was still at his station in the CIC directing the ODP's systems and coordinating defensive fire with the other ODPs that could target on the approaching Covenant fleet. Commander Hanson who commanded the ODP had entered CIC and gone to his station, but seeing that Hamilton seemed to have everything in control did not relieve him or take over from the Ensign. Hamilton had taken that as a vote of confidence from his commander and felt a surge of pride, but then he looked up at the main display board and had to push down a sick feeling building in his stomach as he saw the number and type of Covenant ships that from the display appeared to be heading directly for the point in space that his ODP occupied. Hamilton pushed those feelings of fear down as the tech manning the weapons station reported.

"Covenant fleet has entered effective MAC firing range… We are starting to get target locks…"

Hamilton took only a moment as he looked at Commander Hanson and saw the commander nod to him. Hamilton spoke over his headset, so that the crew in the CIC and his opposite numbers in the other ODPs could hear him. "Mark II's will target the larger Covenant ships… Mark I's target the screening ships… Commence fire on my mark… Mark!"

Hamilton could feel the Iron Bitch shudder as its MAC Cannon fired its huge projectile at tremendous velocities towards the oncoming Covenant ships. Maneuvering thrusters on the ODP fired to re-orient the ODP back into position while another round was loaded and the cannon vented and recharged to fire.

* * *

"Sir… The ODPs are engaging Covenant ships…" Commander said as he looked up from his tablet that was streaming real-time information from the ODPs and the UNSC ships in orbit.

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb nodded as he heard the report, "Have the ODPs continue to engage… The fleet will hold its fire until the Covenant is closer in… Longswords from the carriers will go in first and then the rest of the fleet will open fire… Understood?" ordered Whitcomb.

Commander Wright nodded his understanding and sent the appropriate orders out to the fleet to prepare to engage…

* * *

The Fleet Master's eyes narrowed as he looked at the display screen and checked the status of his task force. As he watched another icon representing one of his heavy destroyers went dark indicating it had either been made immobile from damage or the more likely explanation was that it had been destroyed.

"Fleet Master… We have lost nine destroyers… five cruisers… and one battlecruiser… At least twenty ships reporting different degrees of damage…" the Sangheili manning communications reported.

"Status report on the enemy ships?" ordered the Fleet Master.

"Their ships appear to be holding position… It appears they are waiting until we get closer before engaging us Fleet Master" reported the sensor station.

"Do we have target locks on any of the enemy ships or his weapon's platforms?" asked the Fleet Master anxiously.

"We are just entering range and are acquiring target locks… Fleet Master!" reported the Sangheili at the weapons station.

The Fleet Master paused for a moment as he considered his strategic options and the plan that he had devised. "Continue the advance! Have the task force target the enemy ships only! Not the defense platforms..." the Fleet Master ordered.

The Sangheili at communications was puzzled as were all the bridge crew at the Fleet Master's order. The Sangheili at communications looked over to where the Ship Master was standing. 'Doravee paused for a moment and momentarily considered questioning the Fleet Master's orders, but remembering 'Korahee's threat and knowing that the Fleet Master would certainly carry out the threat caused the Ship Master to hold his silence for now. 'Doravee just nodded back to the Sangheili at communications as the commands were then sent out to the rest of the task force.

'Korahee heard his commands being sent out as he continued watching the display screen as his task force narrowed the range with the humans. Another icon went dark as the Fleet Master kept his gaze locked on the display…

* * *

Michael could see the darkness of space light up through the cockpit of the Pelican as the ODPs fired their Magnetic Accelerated Cannons. As the cannons fired from the ODPs space was lit up by the streaks of the MAC rounds as they hurtled at the Covenant ships.

Michael could feel the Pelican slow down and adjust as it made its approach to the hangar bay of the ODP. It was a bit of a tricky approach as the ODP was firing its MAC and moved with every shot and thrusters had to adjust the ODP back to maintain its firing position.

Michael felt the Pelican touchdown in the hangar bay and waited as the ramp lowered on the dropship. Before the Pelican's ramp had finished lowering, Michael could already hear the frantic movement and noise as the ODP's crew hurried to stations and performed their tasks to keep the ODP functioning and fighting.

As Michael exited the Pelican and looked around the hanger bay, he felt a little out of sorts. He had only been given the general order to get up to the ODP, but nothing more than that by Commander Wright. Michael was trying to figure out his next move when a young, but very determined looking officer approached him and stopped coming to attention in front of Michael.

"Sierra-113… I'm Lieutenant Grant… I'm in charge of the "Iron Bitch's" marine detachment…"

Michael came to attention and saluted the Lieutenant, "Sir… I'm here at the Vice-Admiral's orders, but I have no idea why…" Michael said trying to not sound like a confused raw recruit.

The Lieutenant got a small smirk, "Well from the orders I received from Fleet HQ, you are to be assigned to my detachment and help defend the ODP…"

The Lieutenant paused and then shrugged, "I know… It doesn't make much sense, but orders are orders… Let's get moving and we'll get you squared away."

Lieutenant Grant turned and headed for the bulkhead door to exit the hangar bay. Michael followed the Lieutenant out. As they walked the station would shudder on a regular basis, indicating that the MAC cannon was still firing at the Covenant.

"Have you ever been on an ODP before?" asked the Lieutenant as they walked.

"No Sir… But I have studied and I am familiar with the layouts of ODPs…" replied Michael.

"Well being on an actual ODP and studying a floor plan are two different things… Stick close… There are too many things on these stations that can hurt or kill you… Understood?"

"Yes Sir…" replied Michael as the two soldiers walked down the ODP's corridor…

* * *

"Seventeen confirmed kills… Sir!" Commander Wright reported finding it hard to keep the excitement out of his voice.

"Thank you Commander…" responded Vice-Admiral Whitcomb in a still subdued tone as he continued staring at the holographic display that showed his fleet and orbital defense platforms as they currently tore into the approaching Covenant fleet.

Commander Wright saw the Vice-Admiral's mood and was puzzled, "Sir? You should be happy about this… We're tearing the Covenant a new one and we haven't lost a ship yet…"

Whitcomb turned and looked at the Commander and got a small smirk on his face, "You would think I would be happy, but the Covenant are acting strangely… They are just advancing into our guns… taking heavy damage… Something's not right…"

The tech manning the communications station called out, "Sir… The Covenant are firing…"

Whitcomb nodded as he knew that the time of no losses was about to end…

* * *

Space between the two fleets became a maelstrom as MAC rounds streaked towards Covenant ships and plasma torpedoes now responded back towards the defending UNSC ships that were acting as a shield to cover the ODPs. Ships exploded as they were hit… air vented… crews died as they were crushed, burnt, asphyxiated and sucked out or exposed to the vacuum of space.

The Covenant continued their advance towards New Constantinople and the human defenses…

* * *

Fleet Master 'Korahee looked with satisfaction at the display screen as he could see the results of his task force's plasma fire and that it was causing heavy destruction among the humans. He looked up from the display screen and saw Ship Master 'Doravee with a grim look in his eyes.

"You disapprove of my tactics Ship Master?" 'Korahee said in a questioning tone that held no anger at the moment.

Ship Master 'Doravee bowed his head respectfully, "Fleet Master… Even though we are causing heavy damage among the human ships now… We have lost or had damaged nearly a third of our deployed task force… We have still not fired on the defense platforms and they continue to do the most damage among out ships…"

'Doravee was going to say more, but he was suddenly interrupted by the Sangheili manning the sensor station.

"We have enemy fighters coming in!"

The Fleet Master didn't hesitate, "Launch our fighters to intercept!" the Fleet Master ordered.

Covenant fighters quickly scrambled and launched to intercept and engage the human fighters. Soon the space around the Covenant task force was filled with human and Covenant fighters engaging and jockeying for position… fighters from both sides started to die adding to the scene of destruction as the Covenant ships continued their advance…

* * *

"Sir… Our fighter squadrons are engaging…" Commander Wright reported.

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb nodded that he had heard the Commander's report as he continued looking at the holographic display. "Fleet status?" Whitcomb asked.

Commander Wright got a grim look on his face. "Covenant plasma fire did a lot of damage… We've lost ten ships… Another eighteen reporting varying degrees of damage…" he reported.

"Commander… Get the lame ducks out of there… have them retreat to effect repairs…" the Vice-Admiral ordered.

Commander Wright nodded as he sent the appropriate orders out to the fleet.

"Status of ODPs?" Whitcomb asked.

"No damage… They are continuing their fire…" responded the Commander.

"No damage?" Whitcomb said puzzled as he turned towards the Commander.

"Yes Sir… It appears that the Covenant are only shooting at our ships… They are leaving our ODPs alone…" Commander Wright responded with some puzzlement now entering his voice.

"_Damn! What the hell are the Covenant up to? Why are they ignoring our ODPs?_" Whitcomb thought furiously as he tried to figure out what he was missing.

Whitcomb's thoughts were interrupted as Commander Wright provided another update, "Sir… Our ships are now engaging the Covenant."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**_Evacuation Center #5 – Antioch, New Constantinople – August 14, 2536 – 2030 Zulu Time_**

The evacuation center was a scene of panic and chaos. Barton Jackson struggled to keep his family together as the crush of humanity pushed and pulled at them. After the "visit" to his home by the UNSC and his having ratted out the insurgency, Barton hadn't hesitated and woke up his wife and the kids and packed quickly and caught the first available shuttle to Antioch.

Susan had first been concerned by her husband's behavior and then when their son, Dylan had blurted out how Daddy and the "robot" were meeting to help the UNSC fight the aliens, Susan had almost lost control in a blind panic. Barton had finally managed to calm Susan enough to explain what had happened during the night and that he'd had no choice but to talk. Barton explained that the UNSC was making the arrangements for all them to get off New Constantinople back to Reach and from there they could disappear.

"Are you sure that they'll keep their promise and get us off planet and just not hang us out to dry… It is the UNSC we're talking about here…" Susan said with worry and concern for Barton and her family.

"Yea… I know there's a risk and I know it's the UNSC, but this robot… man or whatever it was… I believe he'll keep his word… He'll get us off planet… I know it" Barton said firmly to not only convince his wife but to reassure himself as well.

Barton, Susan and their kids had arrived in Antioch in the late morning and had made their way to the closest evacuation center. There they waited in line for hours and the children got hungry and cranky from the standing around and waiting. They finally got to the counter that was processing civilian refugees that had been displaced by the Covenant invasion and who wanted to leave the system. At first the person behind the counter couldn't find any record for a Barton Jackson and family that had clearance for evacuation. This caused Jackson to despair and wonder what he had dragged Susan and the kids into… Maybe it wasn't too late to head back to Brusa and pack up and head into the hills to hide.

Jackson was figuring out what to do and what he would need, when his thoughts were interrupted by the refugee worker behind the counter. "Sorry for the delay… There it is… It was filed under our pending section… Okay… I have priority evacuation clearance for one Barton Jackson… and three persons… That would be your wife and children I take it?" the refugee worker said with a smile on her face.

Jackson released a deep sigh of relief and found he could barely speak as he had been so wound up with the stress and tension of everything that had gone down in less than a day. All Jackson could do was nod and sign the required paperwork and he then found him and his family moving into an area where everyone cleared for evacuation could gather and rest. It wasn't the greatest place, but refugee workers were handing out food and water. There were activity areas for children to play and the UNSC had military police deployed to protect the area and make sure that there were no incidents.

Jackson and his family found a place where they could sit down and rest. Jackson and his wife were finally able to relax somewhat. Susan took the kids to the activity area so that they could play and have some fun and burn off some energy. The oldest child Dylan ran off with the other children to play while Susan kept Diana with her and watched Dylan run and play. Jackson found some time to close his eyes and rest as he had been running on pure adrenaline for hours.

* * *

Jackson was just starting to relax and breathe easier when alarms went off throughout the evacuation center. At first Jackson had thought it was something to do with him, but then the vid broadcasts came up with the news that Covenant ships had re-entered the system and that all military and civil defense units were being mobilized. Upon hearing that the Covenant had returned, Jackson had wished that the alarms had been about him.

The refugee workers and the UNSC military police tried to keep everyone in the evacuation center calm, but the lack of news about the Covenant attack only fed rumors which led to people starting to panic at the unknown. Rumors flowed through the evacuation center… The Covenant had already landed… The UNSC fleet had been destroyed… The UNSC had surrendered the planet to save the population… Each rumor caused the hundreds of people in the center to become more agitated and restless.

Jackson made sure that Susan and the kids all stayed close together and his years of working for the insurgency now served him well as his survival instincts had kicked into full gear and he watched for anything and gathered a small cache of food and water that he and Susan could carry. It wasn't a lot but it was more than the others had.

Jackson kept an eye on the crowd and it was starting to get a little ugly, but it was still controllable. That's when Jackson saw it… He saw the worried looks among the refugee workers. The whispering among them and the anxious looks and conversations with the military police. Jackson started to get a really bad feeling. It wasn't very long after that an announcement came over the speaker system in the evacuation center.

"_Due to the Covenant attack… UNSC Command has initiated orders for planet wide evacuation… All cities are to be evacuated… All civilians in evacuation centers will be transported to protected zones for evacuation… Please stand by for further instructions…_"

This announcement immediately set the crowd off in the evacuation center. Most of the people were already fleeing the Covenant from the earlier fighting and the fear and stress had taken its toll. Shouting started to get louder as people feared not knowing what was happening and the fear of being left behind took over.

Jackson turned to Susan, "Make sure you and the kids stay close… I think it's going to get ugly…" he said in a worried tone as he looked into his wife's eyes.

Susan nodded and tried to keep her own worry and fear in control as she hugged her kids closer as the crowds of people started pushing and jostling.

Jackson could see tempers start to flare and people were starting to argue with the refugee workers and amongst themselves. A couple of fist fights had started up, but the UNSC military police were quick to jump on those fights and break them up as they were very aware of how volatile the situation was.

Jackson heard what sounded like a loud roar and he turned towards the entrance of the evacuation center. He could see crowds of people… the people who had been outside waiting to be processed trying to push their way into the center as they were afraid of being left behind and they thought that their only way to safety was inside. The crowds were barely being held back by the small contingent of military police, but it was only a matter of time before things got worse.

It was at that moment that Jackson saw a platoon of marines in full combat armor come into the evacuation center… Things were getting worse. The marines moved through the crowd without stopping, people scrambled to get out of their way or they were pushed away as the marines cleared a path through the crowd and made their way to the entrance of the evacuation center. Jackson couldn't be mad at the marines… the situation warranted these tactics as the people were caught up in fear and "reasonable" dialog wasn't going to defuse this situation.

Jackson watched the marines deploy at the entrance of the evacuation center. He saw the officer in charge of the unit talking to some of the refugee workers and then Jackson saw one of the refugee workers point in his direction. The marine officer looked in Jackson's direction and Jackson tried to avoid it, but they made brief eye contact and Jackson quickly looked in a different direction. Jackson started to panic. Something was going wrong and he was trapped here with no way out... he would be arrested and hauled away and his wife and kids would be left on their own with the Covenant invading the planet. Jackson's mind tried to figure out something… he had to do something as the officer followed by four mean looking and heavily armed marines came over to where he and his family were fighting to maintain their place against the moving throngs of people. Jackson toyed with and immediately dismissed the idea of sprinting for the exit… What about Susan and the kids? He couldn't and wouldn't run out on them.

Jackson saw the marine officer approach and he resigned himself to his fate, but he worried frantically about Susan and the kids. Maybe he could beg for mercy for them… thoughts swirled as the marine officer stopped in front of Jackson looked him up and down and said, "Are you Barton Jackson?"

Jackson was drained and couldn't fight what was going to happen. He nodded meekly resigned to his fate and his fears for his family.

"These marines will escort you and your family to the shuttle pad… Grab your things and get moving… We don't have a lot of time." The marine officer said using a professional and commanding tone.

It took what seemed like a full minute for what the officer had said to sink into Jackson's brain. All he could do was stare dumbfounded at the officer and say, "Huh?"

The officer showed his impatience of having to explain himself, but he maintained his control as he realized he was talking to civilians and not marines. "You and your family have priority clearance… There's a shuttle leaving right now for a transport in low orbit… I don't know who you know, but they are high up enough to make room for you… So let's get moving now!"

Jackson was still in shock, but Susan stepped in and took over taking care of the family. "Thank you sir… Thank you…" Susan said as she got the children and their few belongings together. She grabbed Jackson and shook him out of his stupor as he still couldn't believe what was happening. Jackson followed Susan as she carried Diana and held on to Dylan's hand. The family followed the marines as they pushed through the crowd to the doorway to the shuttle pad. Jackson's son Dylan was mesmerized by the huge and serious looking marines as they exited the evacuation center on to the shuttle pad. Sure enough there was a shuttle waiting with its engines whining and a crew member waving frantically for the family to board. Dylan was wrapped up in the whole adventure and he turned and playful saluted the marines which actually elicited some half smiles from the marines. One marine even returned a lazy salute to Dylan. It was at that moment that Jackson in his numb and drained condition noticed how young these serious and deadly looking marines actually were. "_Jesus… These marines don't even look like they are old enough to shave…_" Jackson thought as he boarded and sat down with his family. The crew helped the family strap in as the shuttle took off to rendezvous with the transport in orbit…

* * *

**_UNSC Fleet Command HQ – Antioch, New Constantinople – August 14, 2536 – 2055 Zulu Time_**

Vice-Admiral Danforth Whitcomb looked grim faced as he stared at the holographic display and saw the real-time output of the battle occurring in space. The ships of his fleet had started engaging the Covenant ships. He had already sent in a fighter strike and that had done some damage, but the Covenant had blunted any advantage and extra damage they could have inflicted by deploying their fighters in defense. The fleet was taking brutal damage from the plasma fire from the Covenant ships, but between the fleet and the ODPs they were giving back as good as they were getting. That was what was bothering Whitcomb. During the entire battle up to this point, the Covenant ships had just fired on the fleet leaving the ODPs unmolested while they continued advancing. This behavior bothered the Vice-Admiral because if he was the attacking commander he wouldn't have ignored the ODPs… he would have found a way of neutralizing them. Whitcomb worried that the Covenant had something up their sleeve and he would have to just wait until the Covenant showed their hand and he would be forced to react to it.

The space around New Constantinople was filled with streaks of lights caused by MAC rounds from the UNSC and the plasma torpedoes from the Covenant. Now that the UNSC fleet was now engaging, along with their MAC rounds, they now fired nuclear tipped _SHIVA_ missiles that added to the destruction. Small suns flared as the nukes detonated against Covenant shields. Ships from both sides exploded… crews died… The Covenant continued their advance…

* * *

**_Covenant CSO-class Supercarrier Glorious Devotion – New Constantinople System – August 14, 2536 – 2100 Zulu Time_**

The supercarrier shuddered as a nuke detonated and flared against her shields. Fleet Master 'Korahee maintained his balance as he continued to watch his tactical display and take in the details of the ongoing battle. He knew that his task force had taken heavy damage and losses, but he also knew that he had dealt the human fleet tremendous damage as well. He had continued to ignore the human's defense platforms for now, but that was soon to end…

'Korahee looked up and turned towards the communication station. "Prepare to send the signal and navigation co-ordinates to the rest of the task force on my command… Once they have emerged from Slipspace and formed up all ships will launch… Understood?"

"Yes Fleet Master… Understood." replied the Sangheili at the communications station.

'Korahee's eyes took on a predatory gleam in anticipation of what he was going to unleash on the humans… Soon the human defenses would be destroyed and then the work of cleansing this planet of the human defilers could begin.

"Execute…" said the Fleet Master as his eyes gleamed with the thoughts of death and destruction…

* * *

**_Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser UNSC Presidio – New Constantinople System – August 14, 2536 – 2105 Zulu Time_**

"Report!" Captain Henry Kwong ordered as his ship shuddered.

"We took a glancing hit on the forward section… port side… armor is holding…" reported the damage control officer.

"MAC status?" asked the Captain.

"Everything is green… Sir." replied the weapons officer.

"Maintain fire…" ordered the Captain.

Captain Kwong was about to ask for an update on the status of his task force when a cry went out from the crewman manning the sensor station.

"Sir… I'm picking high energy space distortions…"

"Where and what is it?" the Captain asked with an anxious tone in his voice.

"It's about 1200 kilometers off our starboar… SLIPSPACE POINT FORMING!" yelled the sensor tech as he couldn't control the excitement and fear in his voice.

Captain Kwong could only look in helplessness as a Slipspace emergence point formed and Covenant ships started to appear…

* * *

"My god…"

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb heard Commander Wright mutter to himself and he shared the exact same sentiment, but he wasn't allowed the luxury to express himself openly due to his rank.

"_So that's what the Covenant had up their sleeve…_" the Vice-Admiral thought as he tried to maintain his composure and adapt and counter this bold move by the Covenant.

"Status and composition of Covenant force?" Whitcomb asked.

"Sensors are showing… Jesus… Thirty-six targets… Twenty-Five targets classified as SDV-class heavy corvettes… Eleven targets classified as CPV-class heavy destroyers…" Commander Wright reported with a grim look on his face.

"_Thank god for small favors… At least these thirty-six ships were lighter class ships and not more battlecruisers and supercarriers..._" Whitcomb thought but still grim faced as he still had thirty-six more enemy ships that just suddenly showed up on his flank.

"Commander… Have the ODPs redirect their fire on this newest threat… The fleet will continue to engage the primary Covenant force… Get the carriers to adjust their position and send in a fighter strike ASAP… Also let the carrier group commander know that he may have to release his escort ships to engage the Covenant…" Whitcomb ordered in an almost calm tone.

"Sir!" one of the techs manning a sensor station shouted trying to catch the attention of the command staff.

"What is it?" the Vice-Admiral asked almost not wanting to hear more bad news.

"We're picking up multiple launches from both groups of Covenant ships?" reported the tech.

"Is it a fighter strike?" asked the Vice-Admiral.

"Sir… The targets are larger and slower than fighters… Sensors are classifying all the targets as Phantom dropships…" came the report from the sensor tech.

It was hard for Whitcomb to maintain a calm exterior and it took all of his self-control not to yell and swear as he realized how the Covenant were going to deal with his ODPs.

"Warn all ODPs immediately… Tell them to prepare to repel boarders!" Whitcomb said in an urgent tone.

* * *

Captain Kwong could only watch with detached fascination as the Phantom dropships flew at full speed through the UNSC fleet. The fleet had been caught off balance by this bold move by the Covenant. The fleet had reacted quickly and had Archer missiles and point defense weapons try to engage the large number of Phantoms. Quite a number of the dropships got taken out by the defensive fire from the UNSC ships, but it was a game of numbers. More got through than were destroyed and they streaked towards the ODPs. The ODPs carried point defense weapon systems, but again the numbers would swamp the defenses and they would get through.

On the ODPs crews moved at a frantic pace and weapons were quickly handed out as word was quickly spread that the Covenant was coming…

* * *

Barton Jackson and his family had taken the shuttle from the evacuation center and docked with the civilian transport ship _UNS Journey_ which had been requisitioned for use in helping with the evacuation of New Constantinople. The _Journey_ had waited in low orbit to rendezvous with all the evacuation shuttles. Once all the shuttles had docked, the _Journey_ quickly made ready to leave orbit and head for a Slipspace jump point to head further back into UNSC space and safety.

The transport had been squeezed to capacity with civilians and everyone jockeyed for a place to claim. It was going to be a long trip back to Reach as there were only a limited number of stasis pods and a large number of the refugees would have to remain awake. Fortunately the UNSC had made sure that the _Journey_ had been provisioned with enough supplies for the trip.

Jackson and his family had found a place to settle down on the observation deck. They had a spectacular view of space around New Constantinople. Dylan was mesmerized by the view as he had never been in space before. It would have been a majestic and enjoyable view if it wasn't for the streaks of lights, explosions and mini-suns flaring in the distance where the UNSC was desperately fighting off the Covenant.

Jackson could only stare at the battle occurring off in the distance and his thoughts drifted to the young marines that had escorted him and his family to the shuttle... those explosions in space were ships and on those ships were young men and women… fighting to protect people… families like his.

Jackson was caught up in his thoughts when Dylan tugged on his arm causing him to stop where his thoughts had been taking him. Jackson looked at Dylan and he was pointing off in another direction.

"Daddy look…" Dylan said.

Jackson turned to the direction that his son was pointing and he was taken aback by the scene. The Journey was passing by a UNSC frigate that had been damaged in the fighting and had been forced to withdraw. Jackson and the other people on the observation deck could only stare at how much damage the frigate had suffered… The outer armor was scorched and there were whole sections of the shipped that had been blasted and exposed to space. Jackson saw how much of a pounding the ship had taken and was amazed that the ship was still under power let alone still in one piece. Jackson could barely make out the name of the ship through the scorched and burnt armor… _FFG 312_… _UNSC Dark Country_…

The _UNS Journey_ quickly passed and started to leave the UNSC frigate behind as the ship gained velocity and headed for the point where it would make a Slipspace jump. An announcement came over the ship's broadcast system to inform all the passengers that they would be entering Slipspace in about ten minutes. Jackson started to feel more relaxed as the ship would soon be safely on its way to Reach. Jackson started to close his eyes, when suddenly alarms went off throughout the ship. Jackson looked at Susan in panic and then looked for and grabbed the children to hold them close as they were unsure as what was happening.

Another announcement came over the ship's broadcast system, "_Attention… Attention… We are under attack by Covenant fighters… Please remain calm…_"

Rather than remaining calm, all the passengers started crying and screaming. Jackson and Susan looked at each other with fear in their eyes and held each other and their children tightly. Jackson could feel the ship increase power to the engines and the ship started to vibrate from the strain placed on it. Jackson could see out the observation window and could see streaks of light that were either the Covenant fighters coming close or the fighters were shooting at their ship.

Jackson could only look at the Covenant approaching and could only feel the fear of failure that he hadn't been able to protect his wife and children. He hated the Covenant for taking away his children's lives and future. He resigned himself to his fate as the streaks of lights were coming closer… there had to be at least eight Covenant fighters coming in for the kill… It was overkill as they only needed one to blow the undefended ship into pieces…

Jackson was still staring when he was shocked as two of the streaks turned into explosions… then a third exploded… Out of the corner of the observation window the passengers could see the battered _UNSC Dark Country_ moving to intercept and cover the _Journey_ as it made its way to its Slipspace jump point and escape.

Jackson could see the heavily damaged frigate firing with its few operational point defense weapons and that it was straining to maneuver its self between the Covenant fighters and the civilian ship. Jackson saw two more Covenant fighters explode and then the remaining fighters turned their wrath on the frigate. Jackson understood what the frigate was trying to do… it was going to draw the fighters on its self to allow the passenger ship to escape… The frigate wasn't going to run… it was going to stand and fight and defend those who couldn't defend themselves.

Jackson watched holding on to his son as the Covenant fighters fired on the frigate causing huge explosions… yet the frigate continued firing back… refusing to back down or surrender. Jackson saw another Covenant fighter blow up and he saw more explosions rip through the _UNSC Dark Country_… Jackson could only imagine what hell the surviving crew of the frigate was going through, yet they continued to fight with the few operational weapons they had left… Tears misted in Jackson's eyes as he thought of the men and women on that ship… complete strangers that were sacrificing themselves to protect him and his family.

The _UNS Journey_ was just entering Slipspace and Jackson caught a last glimpse of the frigate… it was burning and appeared to have lost propulsion and was drifting in space, yet a few point defense weapons were still firing in defiance at the Covenant… refusing to back down… refusing to give up…


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**_Orbital Defense Platform – Whiskey-Tango-004 – In orbit around New Constantinople – August 14, 2536 – 2115 Zulu Time_**

Alarm sirens sounded throughout the orbital defense platform. Michael followed Lieutenant Grant and his marine squad as they raced in full combat armor to station themselves close to the CIC. As they moved through the ODP's corridors, Michael could see the ODP's crew rushing to get to stations looking anxious and nervous since the announcement to prepare to repel boarders was broadcast through the ODP's intercom system. Michael noted how nervous some of the crew appeared to be handling their sidearms.

Michael and the marine squad arrived at their defense point and setup to defend the CIC and its approach corridors. Lieutenant Grant only had a small defense force on the station and he had deployed squads to cover off CIC, the hanger bay, engineering section and the MAC cannon. This left Lieutenant Grant only one squad in reserve and he had deployed it in the center of the ODP, so it could be quickly moved to any area to deal with any potential threat. Michael didn't say anything about the Lieutenant's deployment plans as they seemed sound enough, the only thing Michael had thought was that maybe he should have been deployed with the reserve squad to deal with any threats. The crew was being quickly distributed weapons to help with the defense, but Michael considered that the crew could be more of a liability in close combat due to their inexperience and lack of training.

Michael had been caught by surprise that the Covenant was sending boarding parties to the ODPs, but the more that Michael considered it the more it seemed to fit into the Elite's nature and desire of engaging in close combat. It was such an outlandish maneuver that Michael almost had to admire the spirit and execution of this attack. This would be a tactic that the UNSC would be reviewing and studying long after this battle had finished.

With the marine squad in position to cover the CIC and Lieutenant Grant receiving confirmation that the other squads were also in their positions it was now a waiting game until the Covenant arrived as it was not a matter of if but when.

Michael had tied in his battle armor's communication system with the marine battlenet, but he had also hacked into the ODP's communication net as he had a feeling that system would be useful in providing him information. Michael could only wonder what was happening on the ODP's as he hadn't been able to access any other com systems that could give him an idea of what was happening with "the bigger picture".

* * *

Vice-Admiral Whitcomb tried to maintain his composure as he watched his defenses crumble. He watched the holo-display and saw that his fleet and the Covenant fleet were engaged in a sort of mutual suicide pact as they continued to tear into each other. Whitcomb knew that if he didn't pull the fleet out soon there would be nothing left… Whitcomb had placed his faith in the ODPs and they had served him well up until the point when the Covenant surprised him with that Slipspace jump of more ships… He could have maybe countered that, but it was the launch of dropships to board the ODPs that was the coup de gras. All Whitcomb and his command staff could do was monitor the communications channels of the ODPs and hear the reports of the Covenant boarding and the desperate fighting taking place on each platform. The crews were fighting back the best they could with the weapons they had, but if wasn't going to be enough as the desperate cries and shouts of the ODP's crews filled the air as they tried to beat back the onslaught of Covenant troops. There were marines based on each ODP, but they weren't there in the numbers needed to beat back this type of attack. The Covenant taking horrendous casualties and forcing through to board the ODPs had never been considered, but it was now happening and Whitcomb was helpless as he continued to hear the com channels ring with the sounds and voices of desperate fighting…

* * *

Michael could hear the sounds of fighting echo down the ODP's corridors. From monitoring the marine's battlenet and the ODP's com system, the heaviest fighting seemed to be occurring in the hanger bay and engineering sections. So far there had been no signs of the fighting moving towards Michael's and the marine's defensive positions outside the CIC, but there was the streams of wounded crew on their way to the medical bay that indicated how fierce the fighting was. Michael was getting frustrated as he knew that he should be supporting the marines and crew that were fighting for their lives, but Lieutenant Grant refused to release Michael to go support.

All Michael could do was listen to the shouts and cries over both com systems as the human defenders fought and died. Michael could hear the coms and his frustration grew. He heard one unknown crew member or marine in a scared and panicked voice over the com channel, "_There's too many of them… I need help… Jesus… They've got energy swords… I need…_" The voice was cut off by a scream and the sound of an Elite shouting.

Michael's anger and frustration continued to build, what finally caused him to snap was the com channel from the last person talking had been left open after they had apparently been killed and Michael could hear Elites talking… Michael didn't understand the Elite's language, but then he heard the unmistakable sounds of laughter… the Elites were laughing as they killed the human defenders.

Michael had had enough of the situation and he couldn't stand waiting around while people died and the Elites laughed. Michael checked the magazine on his MA5 and stood up from his defensive position and started walking down the corridor towards the fighting. Michael passed through the other marine defensive positions and the marines just stared as the Spartan walked past them cradling his assault rifle. Michael was heading down the corridor when he heard a shout.

"Where the hell you do you think you're going!"

Michael recognized the voice as belonging to Lieutenant Grant. Michael stopped and looked back and saw the Lieutenant moving at a fast walking pace trying to catch up to him. Michael could see the Lieutenant's face and tell that he was not happy. Michael turned and faced the Lieutenant as he came up and stopped in front of Michael. Michael could see the Lieutenant's face starting to flush red from anger.

"I said… Where the hell do you think you're going…Spartan?" Lieutenant Grant said with anger in his voice building. The Lieutenant made sure that everyone could hear what he was saying as he called out the Spartan.

Michael didn't immediately respond as he realized he was treading a fine line here. Spartan's had a certain amount autonomy in their work and Spartans were not in or under any regular direct command structure, but Michael's current orders had placed him on the ODP and under the command of its officers. Even though Michael was a Spartan, he was still bound by the same rules and regulations as all other military personnel and right now Michael was dangerously close to disobeying orders and being insubordinate. Michael actually smirked as he had always pushed his orders and what he could get away with, but this time there were lots of witnesses. Michael gave himself an internal shrug that they could only court martial him if he survived and the witnesses survived.

Michael saw Lieutenant Grant still looking up at him with anger and he responded, "With all due respect Lieutenant… A lot of people are fighting and dying right at this moment and I'm going to go where I'm needed as this position is obviously secure for now…"

"Your orders are to stay here and help defend the CIC… You will obey my orders or I will have you arrested and court martialed…" replied the very angry Lieutenant.

Michael just starred at the Lieutenant and then turned and continued his walk down the corridor towards the fighting. The Lieutenant continued his shouting and threats at Michael, but he had tuned them out and focused on what lay ahead of him…

* * *

"Sir… We are getting reports of heavy fighting on all ODPs in the battle area now… The crews are barely holding on…" Commander Wright reported to Vice-Admiral Whitcomb.

The Vice-Admiral stared hard at the holo-display of the on-going battle and knew that he had to do something to try and save and salvage the situation and what remaining forces he had left… There was still a lot of fighting still ahead.

Whitcomb swallowed hard as he knew the orders he was about to give would be hard for everyone to take, "Tell the fleet to begin to retreat as per Contingency Plan – Blue-Four… Surviving fleet units will regroup on the far side of the planet using the ODPs on that side to provide cover and support…"

Whitcomb looked up from the holo-display and saw Commander Wright's expression of shock and dismay. Whitcomb explained the situation, "I don't think the Covenant will pursue as we have bloodied their nose badly today… They have their opening to begin landings on the planet…"

Whitcomb could see the question forming in Commander Wright's mind and beat him to the punch before he could ask the question, "…Tell the ODPs that if they cannot retake or hold that they are to abandon and scuttle them to prevent capture and use by Covenant forces… If they can keep fighting they are to continue to do so for as long as possible to inflict as much damage as possible on Covenant fleet units and cover our retiring ships…"

"What about those crews… Sir?" Commander Wright asked already knowing the answer.

"Those crews are expendable now… We've lost this battle… Our main focus now is to keep fighting and buy time so that we can evacuate as many civilians as we can off the planet…" Whitcomb replied with no hesitation, but in his mind he could feel the weight and guilt of his decision to write-off the ODP crews.

* * *

Michael was engaged in a heavy firefight two decks above the main hanger deck of the ODP. After leaving the defensive position outside the CIC, he made his way down towards the hanger deck. It didn't take long until he had "bumped" into Covenant forces advancing up from the hanger deck. A group of eight Grunts came around the corner of one of the corridors, fortunately Michael's motion sensors had picked them up and he had ducked into a side corridor and waited. He could hear them talking and mumbling as they got closer and Michael disengaged the safety on his MA5 and took a deep breath and jumped out in front of them when they were only several feet from his position. Michael could see the Grunt's eyes widen as the Spartan surprised them. The Grunts hesitated…. Michael didn't as he pulled the trigger on his assault rifle and opened up on the group. He shredded the lead Grunts and they dropped quickly. The Grunts at the back of the group saw the firing and they managed to get off a couple of wild shots from their plasma pistols, but seeing their comrades drop quickly unnerved them and those remaining Grunts tried to flee back down the corridor, but Michael quickly shot them down so they couldn't escape and warn the rest of their force.

Michael had then moved slowly down the corridor where the Grunts had come from. He only encountered other small groups of Grunts and the occasional Elite that was looking for easy prey. Michael easily and quietly disposed of them. He also saw evidence of the earlier fighting as he passed through the corridors… scorched and burnt marks from plasma fire… evidence of gun fire and blast damage and the blood and bodies of both humans and the Covenant. Michael finally ran into a large group of Elites two levels from the hanger deck which resulted in a huge firefight occurring in the corridor.

* * *

Plasma rifle shots echoed down the corridor. Michael had just peaked out from around the corner of the side corridor he was taking position up when the Elites opened up. Michael wasn't in any real danger unless a lucky shot managed to catch him. Even though he was safe for the moment he still had a large group of Elites down the corridor and that was the direction he needed to go.

"_It can never be easy… can it?_" Michael thought as he quickly analyzed the situation and tried to come up with a plan of action.

"_Well there's always the direct approach…_" Michael thought as he pulled two frag grenades from his suit and armed them. Michael lunged into the corridor using his Spartan speed and tossed both grenades under-handed down the corridor towards where the Elites were gathered. The Elites immediately started firing and plasma shots sizzled past Michael and he felt several shots hit his armor, but the reflective coating managed to minimize their impacts and he kept moving forward using his speed and reflexes to minimize his exposure.

"_If this doesn't work at least I'll save them the hassle of a court-martial…_" Michael thought as the corridor was filled with plasma shots at least until both frag grenades exploded taking out the lead ranks of the Elites and causing their fire to slacken just enough for Michael to close the gap and open up with his MA5. Michael shredded several more Elites, but there was a lot of them and Michael saw the ammo counter on his MA5 drop to zero, but there was no time to reload as a particularly aggressive Elite was lunging at Michael with a plasma sword. Michael had only time to react and he dodged out of the way as the plasma sword slashed empty air where he had been. Michael saw that the corridor floor was littered with Covenant weapons from those he had already killed and Michael spun and dove and as he came back up he had grabbed on to a Covenant plasma rifle. Again using his Spartan speed and reflexes he turned and held the plasma rifle's trigger down and emptied plasma shot after plasma shot into the attacking Elite's head until the plasma rifle had overheated and shutdown to vent and cool down. By that time there wasn't much left that was recognizable of the Elite's face and head.

The surviving Elites were recovering and Michael saw he didn't have much time and he moved and grabbed a plasma grenade off the body of the Elite he had just killed, armed it and tossed it at the surviving Elites. Michael managed to "stick" an Elite with the plasma grenade and it went off in another huge explosion killing or wounding the remaining Elites. Michael used that time to change clips in his MA5 and he moved up. Michael finished off the wounded Elites and continued down the corridor towards the hanger bay…

* * *

"Fleet Master! The human ships are starting to fall back!" reported the Sangheili warrior manning the sensor station on the task force's flagship.

"Status of our strike teams and our attacks on the human's orbital defense constructs?" Fleet Master Duran 'Korahee demanded.

The Sangheili at communications reported, "Sir… All strike teams are reporting heavy fighting on all human orbital constructs… Strike teams have disabled the main weapons on five of the smaller constructs and one of the larger constructs… Two of the larger and four of the smaller constructs are still firing on our task force…"

"Order the task force to redirect their fire at the orbital constructs that are still firing at us… Ignore the retreating human ships…" ordered Fleet Master 'Korahee.

"Sir?" responded the Sangheili warrior at the communications with some puzzlement.

Ship Master Phur 'Doravee was standing nearby checking on the status of his ship and he heard the Fleet Master's commands and he was confused with these new commands. After sacrificing so many ships and warriors that they were going to let the human fleet escape… it was inconceivable. The Ship Master spoke up, "Sir… Why are we letting the human ships escape? We have an opportunity to destroy their fleet right here… now!"

Fleet Master 'Korahee turned to face the Ship Master and 'Doravee could see by 'Korahee's eyes that the Ship Master was very close to crossing the line that could end with him being shoved out an air lock of his own ship.

"Ship Master…" 'Korahee growled in a low menacing tone, "… As I have said before I don't need to constantly explain myself and my orders, but since you cannot grasp the tactical situation I will explain it to you… We have heavily damaged the human fleet and forced them to retreat. Our strike teams have caused chaos and neutralized a large number of the human orbital defense constructs… We now have our window to begin landings on to this planet… We need to remove the remaining defenses to secure this orbital position… Do you understand?"

'Doravee started to reply, "But Fleet Master… We have caused heavy losses and damage to the human fleet… We are giving them a chance to…"

"ENOUGH!" Fleet Master 'Korahee shouted cutting off the Ship Master's response. 'Korahee continued, "We have also suffered heavy losses today… We need to neutralize the remaining defense constructs and recover our strike teams… We can then begin landings and build up our ground bases… There are several large human cities in our projected landing area… Those cities will have to be dealt with and cleansed… Now continue following my orders or I will find worthy warriors that will follow my orders without questioning them…"

"You lead and I will follow…" Ship Master 'Doravee said as he bowed his head to show his subservience to the Fleet Master and that he would follow the orders given.

* * *

Michael finally made it to the observation deck about the hanger bay. Michael stayed in the shadows and observed the Covenant forces gathered that had stormed aboard the ODP. Michael was trying to figure out how he was going to take on the forces in the hanger bay when his com channel squawked, "Sierra-113… Sierra-113… Provide SITREP…"

Michael was caught by surprise as he recognized Lieutenant Grant's voice asking for a status update, but he quickly recovered and opened the com channel to respond. "Sierra-113 here… I encountered enemy forces and have cleared area towards the hanger bay. I am currently on hanger bay observation deck… I am observing at least six-five plus enemy soldiers on the hanger bay with at least three phantom dropships in the hanger bay… over."

Lieutenant Grant responded, "Roger Sierra-113… We copy your status… We need you to clear the hanger bay ASAP... The fleet is retreating and FLEETCOM is ordering the ODP's to cover the retreat and scuttle to prevent capture… Commander Hanson is ordering all non-essential to abandon ship while he stays and continues to engage the Covenant fleet… We need the hanger bay cleared as there are not enough escape pods alone for the crew to evacuate… Do you read?"

Michael sighed as he knew what was being asked of him and he checked out of automatic reflex, without even thinking, the clip in his MA5 and how many spare clips and frag grenades he was carrying.

"How much time do I have?" Michael asked in a matter of fact tone not betraying any of his thoughts or feelings over the com channel.

"Commander Hanson wants to have personnel off in the next fifteen minutes…" came the reply from Lieutenant Grant on the com channel.

"I'll call you back in ten minutes… Sierra-113 out." Michael said as he closed the com channel and started to make his way down to the hanger bay.

* * *

Plasma shots soared over Michael's head as he ducked behind the cargo container and he could feel the container shudder as plasma shots bounced off of it. Michael had announced his presence when entering the hanger bay by throwing in a couple of frag grenades at the largest concentrations of Covenant troops. As the grenades went off Michael followed up by rushing in blazing away with his MA5 taking out the closest and most immediate threats.

Michael scanned the hanger bay and there were at least twenty Covenant soldiers left and they were a mix bag of Elites, Grunts and Jackals and they were not a happy bunch. Michael was just figuring out how he was going to break cover and engage the remaining Covenant troops when the ODP heaved and shuddered heavily. Before the shuddering had even stopped Michael's com channel came alive with Lieutenant Grant's voice.

"Sierra-113… We're taking fire from Covenant ships… There're only three ODPs left… Commander Hanson is ordering everyone off except him and a skeleton crew to maintain fire and cover the evacuation… We need those Pelicans to get the people off… What's the situation in the hanger bay? Over…"

Michael took a quick peek from around the cargo container he was using as cover (and just managed to avoid several plasma and needler shots). He saw the five Pelicans in the hanger bay, three of them were shot up pretty badly and weren't going anywhere, but there were three Covenant Phantom dropships just sitting there, Michael just needed to remove the remaining Covenant troops and that would be their way out.

"Tell Commander Hanson to send his people to the hanger bay… We have our rides out of here…" Michael replied as he took a long breath and made sure he had a full clip in his MA5 and started to make his move making sure that the remaining Pelicans and Phantoms didn't get damaged in the crossfire…

* * *

Lieutenant Grant led a fire team from his marine unit as they moved through the ODP down to the hanger bay. Grant and the fire team were point as they led the ODP crew which hadn't already evacuated via escape pods. As the group of navy crew and marines moved towards the hanger bay they had passed the scenes and carnage of the fighting that had taken place. Lieutenant Grant could only pass by the scenes wide-eyed in amazement as he knew that he was travelling the same path as the Spartan had come and that the Spartan had left a trail of death and destruction in his path.

Lieutenant Grant and his group finally reached the hanger bay entrance and they stopped as the Lieutenant signaled the group to hold up. It was quiet… too quiet and Grant had a bad feeling. Grant called out on the com channel, "Sierra-113… Sierra-113… What's your status?"

There was only static on the com channel and Lieutenant Grant was at a loss as what to do next, but the ODP shuddered violently from another hit and that brought back the immediate and more pressing need that they needed to get off the ODP and the hanger bay was the only way off. Grant took a deep breath and nodded to one of his marines and that marine hit the door panel and the hanger bay blast doors opened up. The marines and navy crew were met by the sight of complete carnage as the hanger bay was littered with the bodies of Covenant soldiers and sitting on a crate in the middle of this sight was Spartan Sierra-113 bent over holding his left side. Lieutenant Grant could see from the Spartan's posture that he was exhausted and was injured. The Spartan's armor was scorched all over from plasma shots. Grant saw the Spartan looking towards him and Grant approached Sierra-113. The Spartan stood up and that was when Grant noticed why the Spartan was holding his left side as he could see the partially embedded portion of a crystalline shard from a needler sticking out of the Spartan's side.

"Jesus… Are you okay?" Lieutenant Grant said not taking his eyes off the needler round sticking out of the Spartan's body.

Grant could hear the pain in the Spartan's voice as he replied, "Yea… I'll survive… I got lucky and this shard didn't detonate…"

"I tried to reach you on com channels…" Grant said plainly.

"Sorry about that… My transmitter got fried from a plasma shot… Is this everybody?" replied Michael still trying to control the pain he was in.

It took a moment for Grant to refocus and take his eyes off the needler round sticking out of the Spartan. The ODP heaved again from another hit and this brought Grant back into focus. "Yea… Everyone is here… Time to get the hell out of Dodge…"

Lieutenant Grant looked around the hanger bay and saw that three of the Pelicans were non-flyable and he expressed his frustration. "Shit!" Grant said staring at the smoking Pelicans.

Grant was interrupted by the Spartan speaking, "Take it easy Lieutenant… The Covenant were more than gracious to "loan" us three of their Phantom dropships… That should give us more than enough space to get everyone here off and down planet side…"

Lieutenant Grant could only look on speechless as the Spartan pointed towards the undamaged Covenant dropships…

* * *

"Status Update?" ordered Commander Hanson as the ODP shuddered from another hit from the Covenant.

Ensign Hamilton had volunteered to remain behind to continue manning the ODP to keep the "Iron Bitch" in the fight responded to his commander's query, "Sir… All the other ODPs in the battle zone have either been scuttled or destroyed by the Covenant fleet… Covenant ships are continuing to advance on our position… We have taken severe damage… Decks 4, 5 and 7 have been heavily damaged and are exposed to space… Most of our autocannons and Archer missile launchers are destroyed or off-line… Power grid has taken heavy damage… I have rerouted power, so that targeting systems and MAC are still on-line…"

"Thank you Ensign… Excellent work… Continue firing as long as you can…" Commander Hanson said with genuine gratitude in his voice.

The ODP shuddered again as another Covenant plasma shot hit the defense platform. "What's the status of the evacuation?" Commander Hanson asked.

Another crewman in the CIC that had also volunteered to remain behind to help man the ODP responded, "Escape pods have launched and are headed towards the planet surface… Lieutenant Grant reports that the hanger bay was secured by the Spartan… All dropships have launched and are also headed towards the planet surface… Lieutenant Grant also reports that they had to "borrow" several Covenant dropships…"

This brought a smirk to Commander Hanson's face at the thought of the Covenant thinking that they were boarding his ODP to take it out and their dropships were now being used to save human lives.

The "Iron Bitch" shuddered from another hit…

* * *

"Fleet Master… Surviving strike teams are returning to the task force… There is only one human orbital defense construct left that is still firing on us…" reported the Sangheili manning the tactical station on the bridge of the task force's flagship.

"Excellent… Order our ships to concentrate their fire on the last construct… Once it is destroyed all ships are to prepare for landing operations… We need to establish our ground bases… We will have reinforcements arriving soon to support our ground operations." responded Fleet Master 'Korahee.

The Sangheili warriors manning the stations on the flagship's bridge acknowledged the Fleet Master's orders. The Covenant task force continued advancing and firing on the lone remaining human orbital defense platform…

* * *

"Commander! We have lost power to the MAC… We have major structural damage and have fires on most decks… except for the ones that are exposed to space…" Ensign Hamilton reported as sparks flew from an exploding console and the ODP heaved up and down from another hit…

"_Well that's it…_" thought Commander Hanson as he heard the report and knew that his ODP was in its final death throes.

"Okay… Everyone… We've done our duty and it's time to abandon ship… We head to the remaining escape pod and get the hell out of here…" Commander Hanson ordered his remaining crew.

The remaining crew in the CIC made their way out into the ODP's corridor as the ODP shuddered from hits and secondary explosions now occurring. Sparks shot from console panels causing the crew to duck and halt. No one knew if they would get to the last remaining escape pod before the ODP died. The decks heaved and the gravitational controls were starting to fail, but everyone struggled and they finally made it to the escape pod and boarded.

One of the crewmen jumped into the pilot seat of the escape pod and pressed the controls to seal the pod and prepared to launch. The other crew secured themselves into the escape pod seats.

"Hit it!" ordered Commander Hanson as he could feel the ODP shudder and knew that it was going to be a close race in their escape.

The escape pod launched and it was only seconds later that the section they had been in blew up from either a plasma hit or secondary explosion. As the escape pod hurtled towards the planet surface and relative safety, Commander Hanson, Ensign Hamilton and the other surviving crew could only watch helplessly as Orbital Defense Platform numbered Whiskey-Tango-004 or more affectionately known to them as the "Iron Bitch" continued to take plasma hit after plasma hit from the converging Covenant ships. The Iron Bitch finally blew up in a huge explosion lighting up the space around New Constantinople…


End file.
